


Danganronpa 1 - Talent Swap

by PieBurritos



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Dangan Ronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc
Genre: Alternate Universe - Talentswap (Dangan Ronpa), Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-29
Updated: 2021-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-15 21:14:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 18
Words: 63,761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29070879
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PieBurritos/pseuds/PieBurritos
Summary: The killing game at Hope's Peak, but everyone has a different talent.The focus of this fic is on the new trials and relationships that come about as a result of this change.There are spoilers for the main game so play that first if you haven't.
Comments: 90
Kudos: 63





	1. Prologue - Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> All the students are introduced.

Makoto opened his eyes.

What was he doing here again? Where was ‘here’ anyways? Why was he sleeping in a place like this? How did he end up here in the first place?

Huh. Waking up in an unfamiliar place, without remembering how you got there… sounds like the cheesy opening to some webcomic, or web novel, or manga, or YA novel, or something to that effect.

Right, this was Hope’s Peak Academy. An academy where only the best of the best were allowed to attend. He had entered the academy, eager to start his new school life, but had gotten dizzy and lost consciousness. But he had no recollection of being transported to this classroom. Was he in the academy right now? That would make the most sense. But who carried him there? No, more importantly, why did he black out in the first place?

Makoto picked up the strange note sitting on the desk.

It read: Hey there new kid! The next semester is about to start. Starting today, this school will be your entire world.

Nothing was written on the backside.

Makoto looked around the classroom. The windows were nailed up with incredibly thick iron plates, and there was a security camera in the corner. It seemed to stare at him. He re-read the note. This school would become his entire world…? Is that why the windows were blocked? So he couldn’t leave…?  
Makoto flew into a panic. He rushed over to the windows and tugged at the plates, but they didn’t even so much as vibrate. He shook his head. Of course that wouldn’t work. He tried the door next, stumbling as he flung himself into it.

Surprisingly, the door was unlocked! Makoto spilled out into the hallway. He scrambled to his feet and glanced around like a small animal.

“W-where’s the exit? The exit!” He muttered. He fled off in a random direction, running at full speed. He flew around a corner and-

WHAM!

Flashing lights popped in his vision as he lay flat on his back. He groaned and held his now aching head. Shaking away the lights, he looked back up to see who he had run into.

It was a girl with long pale hair and even paler skin. (Did she have albinism…?) She had already gotten back onto her feet (Or had she fallen in the first place at all?) and was looking a bit annoyed. Makoto couldn’t help but feel a bit guilty for running into her. He self reflected and determined that freaking out about being trapped wasn’t ideal behavior. It wasn’t for certain that he was trapped anyways.

He got back on his feet. “I-I’m really sorry about that…”

The girl didn’t make eye contact. She simply stared off to the side. “...are you ok?”

“Uh, yeah. No injuries or anything, if that’s what you’re asking.” Makoto looked himself over as reassurance, though he wasn’t feeling any pain so he knew he must be ok.

“...good.” She simply walked past him. 

“W-Wait! Where are you going?” Makoto called out. He didn’t know why, but he didn’t really want her to leave him.

No, he did know why. He was scared. Really scared. Something weird was definitely going on, and he didn’t want to be alone.

“The main hall.” She kept walking, with an air of confidence.

Makoto sheepishly followed, embarrassed at how uncool he felt by comparison.

When they arrived, there were already a few other students at the hall. Most looked quite nervous as well. One of them in particular, a fat bespectacled boy, was ranting to a few others about how his father “wouldn’t stand for such terrible school conditions” and how “he was going to sue the school into the ground.”

Makoto tuned him out.

“Is this everyone?” A sharp looking boy with incredible eyebrows asked.

“Hmmm… well, if my deduction is correct, there should be one more showing up at some point.” A boy (...man?) with ratty hair and a serious stubble problem said.

There were fifteen people present in the room at the moment. So he thinks there should be sixteen of us? Why does he think that?

“In any case, we were all supposed to be here at 8 o’clock, and it’s 8 o’clock right now. I think we should all introduce ourselves to each other, to start things off.” A blue haired girl suggested.

“You fuckin’ serious? Now is not the time for introductions.” A pompadoured boy spat. “We’ve got to talk about why everyone was fallin’ asleep at the gates!”

“Wait, that happened to you too? To… everyone?” Makoto felt a little relieved that he was not alone in this strangeness. But then again, maybe it would have been better if at least someone knew what was going on.

A girl dressed head to toe in gothic lolita garb spoke up. “Yes, I’m afraid so. It’s strange that I did not foresee such an event occurring… but regardless. I think we should take up on Sayaka’s suggestion. It will be difficult to talk to one another unless we all know each other's names.”

“Hm, I guess so.” Pompadour looked annoyed but he relented.

Makoto wasn’t so interested in meeting his new classmates (at least, he assumed they were supposed to be his classmates). He was more concerned with how to get out of this blasted school. It wasn’t looking good for him… the main entrance looked more like some high-tech door to a bank vault, or maybe the entrance to a military base. And… were those machine guns attached to the security cameras?

Makoto grew cold and clammy. He wanted nothing to do with any of what was going on. He wanted to go home. Why were the windows boarded? Why had he fallen asleep? Why was he forced to be here? Makoto tried hard not to cry. He didn’t want to look at anything. It was all a reminder of his sickening situation. He just wanted to shut it all out: for it all to go away.

“Hey, new kid.” Someone was talking to him, but Makoto kept his eyes shut and crouched down to the ground, covering his ears. He didn’t want to be called ‘new kid’. It’s what that creepy note had called him.

“Hey, man, are you ok?” He could feel peoples gazes drawn to him. It was suffocating. Footsteps were approaching. He couldn’t take it anymore. He had to escape.

“L-Leave me alone!” He screamed desperately. “Just go away!”

“Geez, man, what’s your problem? We’re all worried about you here.”

Makoto stood back up and threw out a finger. He couldn’t prevent tears from spilling down onto his cheeks. “Wh-what’s my problem?? Look! See! Look at that! That’s a gun! And that camera! Someone is watching us! And! And the- the door! It’s…! Why is it so big!? We’re trapped in here! Don’t you understand?!”

Now everyone else was beginning to freak out as well. Apparently, some of them weren’t aware of the gun mounted on the security cam. But one person cut through the frenzy and laid a hand on Makoto’s shoulder.

“Hey. I know all that already, dude.” It was the stubbled man. “But freaking out about it isn’t going to get us anywhere. So let’s just introduce ourselves first, and figure out what to do later, yeah?”

He pointed to himself proudly. “I’m Yasuhiro Hagakure. The ultimate detective! So don’t worry about a thing. I’ll figure out what’s going on here, and make sure we’re all safe.”

The din quickly settled and everyone was feeling much calmer.

“You go next, dude.” Yasuhiro pushed Makoto forwards.

“Um, sorry for freaking out… I’m Makoto Naegi.” He scratched his head sheepishly. “I’m… uh… the ultimate… fanfic writer…” He kinda trailed off. Ugh, why did his talent have to be so embarrassing? It was such a useless talent. Why was he invited to Hope’s Peak again?

“Uh, sorry, could you repeat that? I couldn’t quite hear you.”

“I’m the… ultimate fanfic writer…” he said, slightly louder. “I know… kinda lame.”

The blue haired girl piped up. “No, I think that’s rather interesting! I’d love for you to show me some of your stories sometime.”

Makoto turned beet red. There was no way in hell he’d be showing this girl anything he’d written. Nope.

“I’m Sayaka Maizono, the ultimate moral compass. And I’ll be happy to do anything in my power to make sure we all get along!” She smiled sweetly. So sweetly, in fact, that it was almost sickeningly so.

“Who’s going next?” Someone called.

“How about you, hmm?” Someone else called out.

The group turned to look at the girl with wavy pigtails. “Who, me? Junko Enoshima. The ultimate programmer.” She adjusted her glasses in a very pointed manner, as if to say ‘I’ve said my piece, now stop looking at me.’

“I can go next!” A girl with brown hair tied up into a bun waved and made her way into the center of the crowd. (Her bun was teardrop shaped… how? That completely denies the laws of physics!)

“I’m Aoi Asahina, but you can all just call me Hina! I’m the ultimate pop star!”

Well that explains her sugar-coated voice, Makoto thought to himself.

“Hey… but aren’t those clothes kinda… unstylish for a pop star?” The red haired goatee boy said.

“Oh, these are just my casual clothes. My company figured that if I was going to be staying with my class for a whole year, it would be too much effort to try to keep up appearances all the time, so they let come in my casual clothes! Oh, but I can’t go outside without prettying myself up. The media would have a field day if they saw how much of a wreck I am usually!” She giggled.

Makoto fought the urge to roll his eyes at the giggle. The redhead swooned.

“Oh, uh, I can go next.” He snapped out of it. “I’m Leon Kuwata. Gambler extraordinaire!” He stroked his goatee proudly. “I can show all you ladies how to play poker, if you wanted. Or maybe some card tricks? I can do those too.”

Oh boy, not one of these guys.

“Nobody cares, dipshit.” Pompadour shut him down before he said anything else.

Everyone was now staring at Pompadour, so he introduced himself next. “Me? I’m Mondo Oowada. The ultimate martial artist. But I dunno why they call me that, since I’m mostly just a brawler. But I’ve never lost a fight, so I guess that’s why.”

Figures that he’d have some kind of scary talent.

“I can go next!” The fierce looking boy with incredible eyebrows stepped up and stood at attention, arms down by his sides and head looking straight forward. “I am Kiyotaka Ishimaru! But you may call me Taka! I am the ultimate baseball star! Thank you very much for your attention!” He bowed and stepped back.

Not the ultimate soldier? His mannerisms seemed in line with what you might see from a soldier. Wait… did his baseball team train him to act like this? If so, that’s kind of scary.

The fatso from before introduced himself next.

“I am Hifumi Yamada, the ultimate affluent progeny. And my father will never stand for the incredibly poor service at this school!” He went on and on about how terrible the situation was and how his father’s money would fix all his problems etc. etc. etc.

Makoto doubted that the solution to their problems would be so simple.

Next was a hulking giant of a woman. If it wasn’t for a slight feminine tinge to her otherwise deep voice, Makoto might have mistaken her for a man. “I am Sakura Ogami, the ultimate swimmer. Pleased to meet you all.”

No wonder her back was so incredibly huge… swimmers usually had strong backs.

“I am Celestia Ludenburg. But if you all do not mind, I would prefer if you were to please call me Celeste. I am the ultimate fortune teller.” The gothic-lolita girl cocked her head and smiled.

Makoto couldn’t help himself. “Celestia Luden-castle? But you don’t look German to me.” He blurted out without thinking.

Sayaka audibly gasped. “Makoto! You know German?”

“Uh, no. I… just know a lot of random things.” For my fics... better if he keep that part to himself though.

“No, I am not German. I am full Japanese.” She said. “But please. Call me Celeste.”

Ok, ‘Luden-castle’, Makoto thought. If she wants us to stick to her handle, then so be it.

Next up was a very timid looking girl. “I-I’m Chihiro Fujisaki… the ultimate writer.”

“Oh yeah! I’ve read one of your books! The Crimson Tome!” Yasuhiro said excitedly. “That was your first mystery novel, right? It was incredible! I couldn’t put it down! Oh, and your use of police terminology and procedures was on point!”

Chihiro looked pleased.

Next was a face that many girls were already familiar with. In fact, Makoto also knew his face quite well. Byakuya Togami, the ultimate supermodel. Cool as ice and hot as hell, his piercing glare could make men and women alike swoon.

He curtly introduced himself. “Byakuya Togami. You know the rest.”

Finally, the dull girl with glasses had to introduce herself. She looked really reluctant. “Toko Fukawa… the ultimate soldier…”

“W-What?!” Pretty much everyone reacted with shock. She looked nothing like a soldier. And acted nothing like one.

“Don’t ask…” she said grumpily. “And stop staring at me like that.”

Lastly was the girl that Makoto had bumped into earlier.

“Kyoko Kirigiri. I’m…” She paused. “...the ultimate lucky student.”

Another wave of confusion passed over the group.

“Whadda ya mean ultimate ‘lucky student’? How’s luck even measured like that?” Mondo questioned.

Yasuhiro smirked. “It means you got in here through a lottery, right? Out of all the random people in the country, you got chosen.”

Kyoko looked away. “Yes. That’s right.”

Makoto felt another surge of relief. In the midst of all these incredible people, there was another person like him! Someone who didn’t have any talent, and was just a normal person.

Well, Makoto had his fanfic writing talent. But that didn’t really count. 

But then he thought about it a little more. Kyoko had no talent, but she seemed so self assured. Confident. Makoto at least had something to be proud of, but he couldn’t even be proud of it. He was just a cowardly wimp. Now he felt bad about himself.

“Enough. We’ve all introduced ourselves, and this supposed 16th person never showed up.” Byakuya said. “We need to focus on what actually matters now.”

But before anyone else could say anything…

Ding Dong Bing Bong

“Hello? Is this thing on now? Testing, testing! Mic check, one, two, three. Can you all hear me?”

Everyone looked around for where the voice was coming from: probably the school PA system.

“Great! All students, I’d like for you to come to the gym so we can have our entrance ceremony! Please head there immediately! See you soon!”

The sound cut out.

Everyone looked around nervously. “I guess we should head to the gym…?” Leon said.

Byakuya was already gone. It seems he had wasted no time complying.

“We should go. We aren’t going to answer any of our questions unless we meet with whoever gave us that message.” Kyoko left as well.

Slowly but surely, everyone got over their trepidations and left the room to head to the gym.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you've made it past my first chapter, thank you so much for reading it! I know that introductions can be a little boring, so thanks for bearing with it.  
> This is my first fic and I wanted to start off with something nice and simple (and unoriginal) in concept, but with a lot of potential for creativity. I tried not to alter the character's personalities too much, sans Makoto since I wanted a more pessimistic but thoughtful protagonist, and Hiro since I wanted to see what a reliable Hiro would be like. But maybe they aren't the only characters who have changed...?
> 
> Anyways, again, if you read my first chapter and enjoyed it, thank you!


	2. Prologue - Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The rules of the killing game are explained, everyone freaks out, yadda yadda.

Everyone had arrived at the gym, but nobody was there. No principal, no teachers, not even any chairs. Nothing that would suggest that an entrance ceremony was about to take place was present, except a solitary podium. Nobody said a word. The silence dragged on until…

“Heyo, all! Sorry for being a bit late!” A black and white teddy bear leapt out from behind the podium, landing on top of it.

“A-A teddy bear?!?” Chihiro’s eyes widened into huge saucers.

“I’m not a teddy bear! I’m…” The bear paused for dramatic effect. “...MONOKUMA!!!!”

Utter silence.

“What, no reaction?” The bear stamped his paw angrily. The movement was frighteningly smooth from something that was clearly an animatronic. “I demand that you react properly to your headmaster’s grand entrance!!”

Something snapped within the group and everyone burst out into a panic.

“HOW CAN THAT TEDDY BEAR TALK???”

“It’s just got a speaker in it, obviously! Stop freaking out!”

“W-WHO ARE YOU???”

“WHAT’S GOING ON??”

“HEADMASTER?!?!?”

“This is a dream, this is a dream, this is a dream, this is a dream…”

Makoto was silently piecing things together in his head. Like Yasuhiro had said, it was no use screaming and crying about the bizarreness of the situation. Besides, he was pretty much all cried out from his little breakdown from before.

Basically, everyone had been drugged and kidnapped by some psycho who uses a remote controlled bear as a proxy. For what purpose… well, he was about to find out.  
It was also safe to assume that this individual (...maybe it wasn’t just an individual… maybe an organization?) had considerable power, because they were kidnapped straight from Hope’s Peak. And either they were currently in Hope’s Peak, or they were in a convincing replica. Both taking over an entire school and creating a replica of a school would take considerable power, money, and influence.

Was there an organization like that out there? Makoto wouldn’t know.

“YALL CAN SHUT UP NOW!” Monokuma boomed. “I’m trying to conduct your entrance ceremony here!”

Everyone quieted down.

“Good, good. Now, time to give an overview of what your new school life will be like around here!” Monokuma clapped. “All you spectacular students, who have been chosen as the shining hope of this world… you will all live a communal life together here in these walls.”

“Everyone will live in harmony, and adhere to the rules and regulations. As for when your communal life will end… it won’t!” Monokuma said cheerfully.

As I thought… we’re stuck here forever. Makoto grimly thought.

“Oh, but the exception is if someone dies. Obviously. But don’t worry about that for now!”

“I-If someone dies?!?” Leon stuttered.

“Calm down dude, he just means that although our communal life isn’t supposed to end, if someone by some accident ends up dying, their communal life will have come to an end. Which makes it an exception. Right?” Yasuhiro reasoned.

“Wait, but what does he mean when he says ‘for now?’”

People began to open their mouths to ask more questions, but the bear waved them down.

“Ah ah ah! I’m not done yet. Jeez, kids these days. Always trying to interrupt the authority figures.” Monokuma clicked his tongue.

“Anyways, to be more clear, you’ll all be living here for the rest of your lives! But don’t worry, since we’ve got a nice fat budget. You’ll never run out of common conveniences, like food, water, electricity, and the like.”

Yasuhiro took this moment to interject. “So those metal plates all over the windows… they’re to keep us from getting out?”  
“Yup! That’s right! There’s no way to escape, so you shouldn’t even try!” Monokuma said. “No matter how much you scream and shout, nobody will ever hear your cries for help…”

“Oh, so they’re to keep us from getting out.” Makoto said. “Well, better than the inverse, I guess.”

“Huh?”

“Oh… I was just saying that if the plates were there to keep things on the outside from getting in, it would mean the outside world is all messed up. But… that’s impossible since we were out there just a few hours ago and everything was fine. Uh… I just thought of it since I read a lot of stories where there’s been some kind of an apocalypse…” Makoto was feeling abashed now. It was stupid of him to bring it up. “I… shouldn’t have brought that up. Sorry.”

Before an awkward silence could properly form, Monokuma kept talking, as if Makoto had never gone on a tangent at all. “But before you all start moaning and groaning about how you want to escape… Allow me to show you how!”

A projector lit up behind him. On it, a cartoonish display of a boy smashing in a girl’s head.

“MURDER!” Monokuma said with glee. “Smashing, stabbing, strangling, drowning, burning!” With each method, the projector display altered to reflect the said method.

“If you want to escape this school, all you have to do is kill someone and get away with it.”

“WH-WHAT?!?” Several people stuttered in unison.

“That’s completely ridiculous! There’s no way any one of us would ever do something so terrible just to escape!” Sayaka said confidently.

“Upupupupupupu… that’s what you think…” Monokuma’s bizarre laugh seemed to echo.

“She’s right. None of us are murderers. We wouldn’t even know where to start, even if we did have a sufficient motive!” Yasuhiro stated.

“W-wait, that’s not true!” Kiyotaka said. “Don’t we have an Ultimate Soldier and Ultimate Martial Artist?”

Toko and Mondo paled as everyone stared at them in fear.

“Upupupupupupupu…”

Hold on, Monokuma was laughing there for a reason. He probably thinks that it’s hilarious that we’re already starting to suspect each other after having declared that no murders will occur. Makoto figured the group was falling into a pitfall, and nobody was speaking up, so…

“Hold it!” Makoto tried to project, but it didn’t come out as loud as he wanted. Despite this, he still succeeded in gathering everyone’s attention.

“Did you hear that bear laugh just now? This is what he wants! He wants us to grow suspicious and afraid of each other! So… we can’t do that! Um…” Makoto searched for a way to eloquently complete his thought, but could not find it.

Yasuhiro nodded. “He’s completely right.”

“Yeah!” Aoi chimed in.

And despite the rather redundant and useless nature of that “Yeah!”, it somehow seemed to unify the group. Well, most of the group, anyways.

“Right, we’re not falling for any of your cheap tricks!” Leon said.

“Puhuhuhuhuh… AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!” Monokuma burst out laughing.

“You guys are so proud for pulling yourself out of that tiny little divot?! Don’t make me laugh! Believe me, if you tripped over that, you have no chance of surviving what I’ll be throwing at you next!” The bear continued to laugh even harder.

“S-stop laughing! Let me go already, you stupid toy! I’m the heir of the Yamada group, I’ll have you know, so if you don’t let me go this instant-!”

“Shut up.” The air suddenly turned icy. “Nobody even knows that you’re here. Nobody is coming to save you. And I certainly won’t be letting you go…”

The bear turned cheery again. “Unless you kill someone! So… get to it!”

“Lies! You’re lying!” Hifumi blubbered.

“Truth or lie, I don’t give a shit. This motherfucker is going down.” Mondo cracked his knuckles, then shot forward with blinding speed. He closed in on the doll and scooped it up with his left hand, tossed it out in front of him, and utilizing all the combined power of his legs, hips, waist, and shoulders, threw out a right straight that smashed Monokuma’s face apart and sent the rest of the body flying into the wall.

Where it then exploded.

Everyone stood speechless.

“What that shitface deserves.” Mondo spat.

“He- He did it! He killed-”

“Yeah, no.” Another Monokuma, identical to the first, popped up. “By the way, I’m going to let you off easy this time because you haven’t read the rules yet, but try that again and I will kill you.”

The machine gun suddenly fired off a few rounds that came dangerously close to Mondo’s face.

“Don’t forget about these little babies!” Monokuma gestured to the machine gun.

“W-Wait, there’s another?” Aoi gasped.

“Of course there’s another. Whether this Monokuma is an AI or if it’s remote controlled… there’s no way there wouldn’t be spares. And I wouldn’t mess with Monokuma either, since it didn’t just explode for no reason. I’m willing to bet each and every spare has a bomb implanted in it.” Junko drolled. 

She didn’t seem very fussed for whatever reason…

“Exactly what I’d expect from the Ultimate Programmer! Puhuhuhuhuhuhu!!!”

“But anyways! I don’t think you guys are realizing or accepting the severity of your situation. You don’t have a choice. Either kill… or live here for the rest of your life and die having accomplished nothing!”

Nobody had anything to say.

“Alright, finally! Time to get onto business. I’ll be passing out your e-Handbooks!” The bear hopped around and shoved a pad into everyone’s hands.

“These little doodads are very important to your school life, so don’t lose them! When you start it up, it’ll always display your name, so please make sure you have the right one! They have a variety of functions, but the only one that matters to you right now is the Rules and Regulations. Make sure you review them, because from here on out, any rule breaking is going to be punished!”  
“Anyways… that’s about it! Have fun killing each other!” Monokuma vanished.

“So… um, what now?” Chihiro asked.

“We look for a way out, of course!” Yasuhiro said.

“But… Monokuma said that there was no way out.”

“He could be lying. We can’t trust anything our kidnapper says.”

Makoto raised his hand. “Wait, guys, before we start looking for a way out… shouldn’t we read the rules? If we end up breaking one of the rules on accident… it wouldn’t be good.”

“He has a point. Let’s read the rules quickly, then go.”

Makoto opened up his e-Handbook and looked at the rules.

Rule #1: Students may only reside on campus (school building and dorm building included). Leaving campus is not allowed under any circumstances.  
Rule #2: “Nighttime” is from 10 pm (22:00) to 7 am (7:00). Access to some areas is prohibited during nighttime, in which case they will be closed off.  
Rule #3: Sleeping anywhere other than the dormitory rooms will be seen as sleeping in class and is thus prohibited. (The exception is if the sleep is caused by an outside force, such as being drugged or knocked unconscious.)  
Rule #4: You are free to explore Hope’s Peak academy at your discretion.  
Rule #5: Violence against the headmaster is prohibited, as is the destruction of the video cameras and video monitors.  
Rule #6: Once a killing takes place, a class trial will begin shortly after. Participation in the class trial is mandatory.  
Rule #7: If the guilty party is exposed during the class trial and voted upon with a majority vote, they alone will be executed.  
Rule #8: If the majority vote names an innocent party, the culprit alone will graduate and all other students will be executed.  
Rule #9: Lending your e-Handbook to another student is prohibited.  
Rule #10: A killer may only kill one other student to cover up their original crime. This is to prevent students from going on a murder spree in order to forgo the trial process.  
Rule #11: A “body discovery announcement” is played when three or more students discover a body. Whether this includes the culprit or not is up to the headmaster’s discretion, in order to prevent the announcement from being used to determine the culprit.  
Punishment Rule: The punishment for breaking any of these rules is decided by the headmaster, Monokuma. Punishment may include, but is not limited to: torture, death, a slap on the wrist, harsh reprimanding.  
Rulemaking Rule: New regulations may be added to the rules at any time. New rules become effective five minutes after a majority of the students become aware of the new rule.

Huh… they’re actually pretty detailed. And the rulemaking rule seems surprisingly fair, considering that Monokuma won’t be able to ambush us with any new rules.

“What the fuck?” Mondo said. “These rules are shit! Like I’m going to abide by these!”

“You are, unless you want to die.” Kyoko said simply.

“Actually, I am quite interested in what Monokuma would do if someone broke the rules… the rules say that punishments can vary…” Celeste said.

“But… I really can’t see that bear punishing us with anything other than death, to be honest…” Leon said.

“Agreed, it’s not worth it.” Yasuhiro said.

“Tch…” Byakuya’s small sound of annoyance caught everyone’s attention.

“You guys are all avoiding the most important topic… the most important thing to consider. I wonder… is anyone actually taking this seriously?”

Makoto was. He knew. He knew that if Monokuma was suggesting that they kill each other, he would have ways of making it happen. He didn’t know exactly how, but it would probably be akin to psychological torture.

And why did he know that it would happen? Because there would be no game unless someone killed. And the game was the whole point of trapping them in the school in the first place. And not only that, trapping them in the school, the cameras, the machine guns, the iron plates, food, water, Monokuma himself… it all had to be paid for one way or another. Nobody would ever spend this much money on a stupid game unless they had a way to make up that money.

Which is why… the cameras were there. This game was being broadcasted or streamed in some way, in order to make the money that would be needed to run the game. Of course, it couldn’t be broadcasted to the general public. That would be insane. It would have to be on the deepest, darkest reaches of the net. A place where filthy money was gathered.

Oh my god. Viewers were probably betting. They were betting on who would survive the longest, who would kill, who would be killed. And Monokuma… or the mastermind, or whoever they are… they’d be making a killing. 

It was deplorable. Disgusting. The worst humanity had to offer. 

But there was no definite proof of this theory. It was just an armchair theory, supported only by the fact that they had a seemingly infinite budget and had placed cameras everywhere. But Makoto believed in his theory. But he also didn’t want to explain it to everyone, because if everyone became aware they were in a show, Monokuma might become frustrated and kill them all for ruining the show.

“Nobody here would seriously consider killing anyone!” Sayaka insisted.

“You may say that, but I saw the fear on your faces when Monokuma explained that we had to kill each other. Why were you afraid?” Byakuya chuckled. “It’s because deep down… you know that someone just might consider it.”

“S-shut up!” Leon screamed. “Why would you say something like that?”

“Because I’m right.”

“You cocky fucker… shut your uppity ass before I shut it for you!” Mondo raised his fist.

“Oh? You’re approaching me? Do you intend to kill me? That didn’t take long.” Byakuya continued to chuckle, seemingly unafraid of Mondo’s threat.

“You- You…!” Mondo charged, but before he could get within punching distance, Sayaka cut him off.

“Stop! We can’t start fighting!” She pleaded.

“Get out of my way, dammit! This little bitch thinks he can say whatever he likes? I need to teach him some fucking manners!”

“You’re the one who needs to learn some manners!” Sayaka retorted.

“GRGGGH!!!” Mondo couldn’t argue with that.

“Fuck.” He turned around and trudged off.

Byakuya simply smiled. Did he plan for Sayaka to step in all along?

It seemed that nobody had much else to say, especially not with Byakuya still in the room. After he left though, people began talking again.

“So… do we go look for a way out now? Or what?”

Makoto couldn’t help but realize that Byakuya had been right, in a way. Everyone was just skirting around the fact that they were in a killing game. Nobody wanted to talk about it, because it meant having to face that reality.

“Yeah… let’s go. We should probably split up into groups of three or something.” Yasuhiro said.

So the groups were decided. Makoto would be with Chihiro and Yasuhiro, which seemed like a good group to be with. Rather annoyingly though, Toko and Hifumi didn’t want to join any groups and insisted on staying in the gym.

And so they split off to search the school, with the intent of gathering up at noon to discuss their findings.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Makoto is doing a lot of deep thinking here, and Byakuya is being a prick as always. I haven't really gotten to the exciting stuff yet, so please bear with me till we get there. A side effect of Makoto's cowardice is that he isn't punched out by Mondo, so he'll actually get to do some investigating, which is good for him.
> 
> Anyways, thank you for reading my work, and I hope you enjoyed it!


	3. Prologue - Part 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone splits up to investigate the school. Makoto tries to cook.

“We should probably take an inventory of this place later.” Yasuhiro noted, looking around the storage room.

Makoto hoped by ‘we’ he didn’t mean specifically the three of them, because he definitely did not want to spend his time tediously writing down each and every item in the massive room.

“Um… are we done here? Or…?” Chihiro glanced about. Makoto couldn’t fault this behavior: it was rather dimly lit and it was kind of spooky.

Yasuhiro sighed. “Yeah, I guess we are.” He pulled out his handbook. “Let’s see… next on our list would be the trash room.”

He led the group in silence as they made their way to the trash room.

The trash room was also dimly lit. The only things of note there were an incinerator, which happened to be behind a steel shutter, and a hatch on the ground.

Yasuhiro tried the hatch, and tried to lift the shutter, but neither moved.

“Oy oy oy!” Monokuma dropped from the ceiling. “Need some help with that there Holmes?”

“Whoa!” Yasuhiro jumped back. “Don’t just jump out of nowhere like that!”

“My my, how ungrateful. I guess you don’t need my help after all?”

Makoto stepped in. “No no, he was just surprised is all! We’d love to have your help.” Despite knowing full well that that last statement was a lie, he forced it out anyways. Better to stay on the kidnapper’s good side.

“Now that’s what I’m talkin about, egg boy!” Monokuma fished a key out from… somewhere. “This here is the key to the incinerator. Just insert it here and you can lift the shutter. But there’s only one of these, so be careful with it! Now see ya!”

And the bear vanished once more.

“Egg boy? Who’s egg boy?” Chihiro wondered aloud.

“Must be me.” Makoto said. “Makoto Naegi: the last part of my name sounds like ‘eggy’, so I guess I’m egg boy now?”

“Alright, let’s try the key.” Yasuhiro said somewhat impatiently.

Makoto unlocked the shutter and lifted it up. He also tried the key on the locked hatch, but it didn’t fit.

“I see how it is. I bet Monokuma wants us to dispose of evidence using this incinerator.” Yasuhiro noted.

“Y-you mean like they do in novels?”

“I think you mean like they do in real life as well.”

Makoto thought about it though. “Wait, guys, since there’s only one key…”

“..then that limits who can incinerate things to just one person.” Yasuhiro finished his thought. “Not a bad idea. And that aside, we can just rotate who has the key and they can be on trash duty.”

“Alright.” Makoto agreed it was a good idea. “So who’s on trash duty first?”

“Dude, that’d be you. You’re holding the key, so I don’t see any reason to switch.”

Makoto wanted to say “Sounds like a lame excuse to force trash duty onto me since you’re lazy.”

What he really said was “Ok.”

There was nothing else to see since the locked hatch was, well, locked, and so the group moved on to the next room.

It was a pretty basic laundry room, aside from some magazines lined up on a rack to help pass time. At least it was better lit than the last two rooms. But there wasn’t anything of interest to see. And so the group moved on.  
“Hey egg boy.”

“Don’t call me that.”

“Ok, Makoto. Can you tell me what’s different about this room compared to every other room in this school?”

“This room is a locker room?”

“No, no, nothing like that. Come on, it should be easy.”

“It’s that there aren’t any cameras in this room…” Chihiro answered.

Oh. Well, Makoto felt bad for not noticing something like that.

“W-wait, then this is great news! If there aren’t any cameras in here…” Makoto said excitedly, “...then what? I don’t actually know what that means for us.”

“Well, it means if we want to plan anything regarding escape and we don’t want Monokuma to know, we can do it here. Though I guess it would be awfully suspicious if we all just went into the baths at the same time.” Yasuhiro said.

Well, it was definitely better than nothing. This was something worth reporting!

The group finally went to the last room on their list: the cafeteria.

There wasn’t much to say about the place other than: “it is a cafeteria”.

They checked the kitchen, which was in a room adjacent, and it seemed to be well stocked, just as Monokuma had said.

“Well,” Yasuhiro said dully, “I guess we wait now. We’re all supposed to meet in the cafeteria at noon, and it’s still eleven.”

“Hey, why don’t we cook something then? I bet everyone would be pleased if we had lunch ready and waiting for them.” Makoto said.

“B-but I don’t know how to cook.” Chihiro looked distressed by the idea.

“Yeah, me neither. I just stick to instant ramen.” Yasuhiro looked more uninterested.

“Fine, fine, I can just do it myself then.” Makoto huffed a little and strode off towards the kitchen. Admittedly, he too did not know how to cook, but he was going to try his darndest.

Makoto decided on pasta. He had found a package that had instructions on the side, so he figured he couldn’t screw this up. Boil water, add the pasta, let it boil for nine minutes, drain, and serve. Easy!

But it wasn’t that simple. First of all, one package clearly wasn’t going to be enough for fifteen teenagers. He’d be needing at least four, maybe five. Actually, scratch that, make it six.

Secondly, with this much pasta, none of the pots were actually big enough to hold that much. He would have to use three different pots at the same time.

Finally, there was the matter of sauce. In truth, this wasn’t a problem at all, since the pantry was stocked with jars of tomato sauce. But in his determination to not screw up the pasta, sauce had completely slipped his mind.

And so, Makoto stood, staring at the three pots of water, waiting for them to boil.

Eventually he got bored and went back to the cafeteria to sit down. This was a mistake.

Having completely lost track of time, Makoto rushed back into the kitchen, which was now completely covered in steam. He checked his three pots, and they held approximately half the amount of water that they did before, the rest having boiled away.

Makoto waved away the steam as best he could, but it had no effect. It was hopeless. He just had to make do with impaired eyesight. Not only that, but he also had to refill the pots, at least partially.

Intending to refill it, he grabbed the edge of one of the pots-

OW.

Makoto let go of the pot immediately, and it clattered to the ground, spilling boiling water onto the floor. How could he be so stupid? The water inside was boiling, so it stood to reason that the pot itself was also extremely hot.

He didn’t have time for this.

Grabbing two towels, he wiped up the water and threw the towel into the sink, then wrapped the remaining towel around his hands and picked up his pots one by one, and refilled them.

Putting them back onto the stove, he then resolved to make sure to not lose track of time this time around.

Chihiro rushed into the room. “M-Makoto? Are you ok?”

“Yeah, I’m fine, it’s just… I messed up.”

“Where did all this steam come from?”

“Like I said… I messed up.”

“C-can I help?”

“Is this because I messed up?”

“N-no!” She stuttered. “I-I mean…! Yes? No? Aaah!”

“Ah, I didn’t mean to sound so confrontational there.” Makoto said sheepishly. “That was my bad. Um, sure, you can help me. Just… keep an eye on these pots so we know when they’re boiling.”

“Oh! Yes! And thank you!” She did a quick little bow and rushed over to stare at the pots.

Makoto couldn’t help but think of her as a little puppy, with how eager she was. But he then immediately dispelled that thought. 

But then he was struck with a flash of realization. The sauce! Plain pasta was no good! He needed sauce!

In a panic, Makoto rushed into the pantry. Spotting some jars of tomato sauce, he quickly grabbed them, accidentally knocking over the adjacent jars of olives, which subsequently smashed against the ground.

Makoto didn’t care though. He ran back into the steamy kitchen, and promptly realized that he actually didn’t need to rush at all, and felt silly.

Monokuma dropped from the ceiling. “Hey, hey, HEY!” He yelled angrily. “WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’RE EVEN DOING IN HERE!?”

Makoto was stunned. “M-making pasta?”

“THAT’S NOT HOW YOU FUCKING MAKE PASTA!” Monokuma screamed. “Oops, please excuse my language, that was not proper of me to say. But anyways! Why haven’t you turned on the fan?”

“T-the fan?”

“Yes, the fan! Do you think chefs are constantly surrounded by steam because they’re boiling water all the time!? No, stupid! They have fans that blow it away!” Monokuma leapt onto the counter and flicked a switch.

A wave of air passed through the room as the fans kicked up.

“I won’t have you idiots getting all the food mildewy because you don’t know how to turn on some fans! And also! Stop dropping jars of perfectly good food on the ground!”

“That was just once! I’m sorry!”

“If you’re really sorry, it won’t happen again! Monokuma out!” And Monokuma vanished.

Yasuhiro ran into the room. “Dude, was that Monokuma? Are you ok?”

“He… he chewed me out for being a terrible cook.” Makoto said lifelessly.

“Oh, ok dude. Tell me when the pasta is done.” He then left.

What? Didn’t he care at all that he had just been verbally abused by Monokuma? It was scary! Super scary! And all he cared about was the pasta? Seriously?

Makoto glanced over at the stove, where Chihiro was standing. She stood with a look of complete shock on her face. But then, slowly but surely, tears started dripping down her eyes.

“T-that was… that was scary…” She shivered. “That was so scary!” The shivers eventually turned into full blown sobs.

Makoto started crying too, but for a different reason. It was because she understood! She understood just how terrifying that experience was! “I-I know… that was scary… I was so scared…” He said, rather redundantly (and stupidly).

The two stood and sobbed, having come to a mutual understanding. It’s true, they were pitiful for crying over being chewed out by a robot bear, but at least they were pitiful together.

After a while they pulled themselves back together and realized the water was boiling again. Makoto put in the pasta and set a timer for nine minutes.

As he and Chihiro left the kitchen to wait for the pasta to be done, Makoto giggled.

“You know… looking back, that was actually super funny.” Makoto snorted. “I can’t believe Monokuma got so mad over that.”

“Hehe. I guess it was pretty funny, huh? I mean, all you did was steam up the kitchen a little, and drop a few jars.” Chihiro snickered.

“I know right? And Monokuma was all like ‘THAT’S NOT HOW YOU FUCKING MAKE PASTA!’ Aahahahahahahaha! What a drama queen, I swear!” Makoto couldn’t suppress his laughter a second longer, and had to lean against a table for support.

Chihiro also burst out into laughter. It was just too funny.

In truth, however, their state of raucous laughter was not just a product of the hilarity of the situation, but also the fear they had recently experienced. They were experiencing the jitters of narrowly escaping a dangerous situation, and their heart rates had not yet calmed down. And so, the two collapsed on the ground, unable to control their mirth.

“HEY!” Monokuma showed back up. “Are you two… laughing at me?”

Makoto stopped laughing and looked over at Monokuma.

Monokuma stamped his little paw in indignance. “Stop laughing!”

“BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!” Makoto burst into a second round of laughter. Monokuma had become completely hilarious to him, and that cute little act of anger only served to reinforce this new perspective.

Chihiro even, in her timid, fearful nature, could not help but laugh as well, since as we all know, laughter is contagious.

And because laughter is so contagious, Yasuhiro joined in, despite not even understanding what was so funny.

“Stop! I am your headmaster! So take me seriously!” Monokuma screamed in vain.

But then something else caught Monokuma’s attention.

“Are- are you guys…” Monokuma said fearfully.

Everyone stopped laughing. Monokuma was being fearful? What was this madeness?

“ARE YOU GUYS FUCKING RETARDS?!? TURN THE GODDAMN HEAT DOWN WHEN YOU PUT THE PASTA IN!” Monokuma ran towards the kitchen with the urgency of a man with a severe case of bowel movements, and flung himself at the heat knobs, turning them all down to low. But the damage was done.

A starchy froth covered the entire flooring of the kitchen, having overflowed from the pots.

“DON’T YOU SEE WHAT YOU’VE DONE? MY PRECIOUS TILE FLOORING IS ALL MESSED UP BECAUSE YOU GUYS ARE BRAINLETS! BRAINLEEEETTTTTSSSS!!!!!”

Their only response was to continue their laughing from where they left off before.

“Ugh, I’ve had enough. I hope you guys all get murdered once people finally get around to it.” Monokuma had had enough, and thus left.

\------------------------------------------------

Makoto drained the pasta in one of the colanders he had found. He still felt a bit giggly, but forced himself to remain calm. He almost suffocated to death from how much laughing he had done. 

Finding a huge serving bowl, he dumped the pasta all in alongside the sauce he had heated up in the microwave, and mixed it together. Finding a cheese grater that could be used by hand, as well as a block of parmesan, he went and set it on the cafeteria table, then went back and brought in the pasta. It was now nearly noon.

“Alright, mission complete!” He said cheerfully.

“With absolutely no mishaps!” Yasuhiro joked.

“Yup!” Chihiro giggled.

They did a team high five.

Monokuma, somewhere, was privately throwing a temper tantrum.

A bit later, everyone else entered.

“Alright, time to discuss our findings.” Yasuhiro said. “But first… what say we eat?”

“That would be excellent, but… where are our plates? And utensils?” Celeste questioned.

Makoto and Chihiro simultaneously looked at each other. And then burst out laughing.

“Sorry, sorry,” Makoto squeezed out through laughs, “It’s just that so much happened that it totally slipped our minds.”

Makoto and Chihiro cheerfully skipped off to go grab some plates and utensils.

“Why are they so friendly now? What happened?” Aoi wondered.

“Oh, I wasn’t actually there for it, but Monokuma yelled at them in the kitchen and they thought it was really funny for some reason.” Yasuhiro explained.

“Weirdos…” Toko grumbled.

“I, for one, think that their newfound friendship is admirable! Strong bonds between team members increases efficiency when it comes to non-verbal communication.” Kiyotaka declared.

“I agree. It’s definitely a sign that Monokuma will not influence us to turn on each other. If anything, we’ll only be more inspired to stick together.” Sayaka said.

Although she didn’t explicitly state it, everyone knew that she was referring to the idea of someone kicking off the killing game.

Makoto and Chihiro returned and set the table, then sat down with the rest.

Everyone enjoyed their pasta (thankfully).

“Ok, let’s get down to business.” Yasuhiro said. “I think our group can start us off. For reference, we were in charge of exploring the various rooms in the dorm building.”

“First, there’s the cafeteria and kitchen, which are connected to each other. Just as Monokuma said, the kitchen is fully stocked and will apparently replenish overnight. And as you know, we’re going to have to cook for ourselves.”

Makoto tried hard not to let out a snrk, but ultimately failed.

“We also have a laundry room. Not a whole lot to say about that place, other than we’ll have to do our own laundry. There are also some magazines in there if anyone wants to check them out.”

“Next is the garbage room. Or trash room, whichever it’s called. There’s not a whole lot in there either, but it should be noted that you need a key to access the incinerator. We’ll be assigning people to garbage duty every couple days or so, and Makoto is up first, so once your trash cans are getting full, go talk to him.”

“There's also the bathhouse. The only thing of note in there is that there aren't any cameras, so if anyone wants to have a private conversation, do it there.”

“Lastly and most importantly is the storage room. It was impossible to take note of everything that was stored in there, so we’re going to have to go back at some point and take an inventory of the place.”

The next group to share info was a group consisting of Aoi, Sakura, and Mondo.

“We tried prying the plates off the windows and breaking down the door… but neither of them budged, even with our combined strength. Sorry…”

“What a waste of time…” Toko rolled her eyes.

“Um, considering you just sat around and did nothing at all, you shouldn’t be talking.” 

Next was the group of Sayaka, Kiyotaka, and Leon.

“We explored the school building. We could only explore the ground floor, since the second floor is blocked off, but here’s what we found.”

“Apart from the gym, which we’ve all been to, there’s an A/V room, though there’s nothing to watch, a nurse’s office, which is stocked with all sorts of medical supplies, and a school store… which we can’t buy anything from.”

“There’s also a few classrooms, though there’s nothing of interest in those either, and there’s a mysterious red door that Monokuma said won’t open for the time being. So… that’s all we have.”

Lastly, Celeste, Junko, and Kyoko.

“We investigated the dorm rooms. They are all identical, so I suggest you check your own room.”

“...”

“Is that all?”

“Oh, the girls have locks on their bathroom doors, but the boys don’t. Also, the rooms are entirely soundproof.”

“...”

“Ok, so are we done here?”

“Oh right, you’ll get your key once you enter your room. That’s all.”

“Sounds like there wasn’t a lot to investigate. How did you spend the rest of your time?”

“We just stayed in our rooms, obviously.”

“...”

Suddenly, Byakuya strode into the room.

“Hey, Byakuya, where have you been?”

“I’ve been searching for clues that would lead to the identity of the mastermind who locked us in here.”

“Ooh! So have you found anything?”

“No.”

“No…?”

“Did I stutter?”

“...”

“So…” Yasuhiro tried to break the silence. “No avenues of escape, huh?”

Silence still.

“Um, wait, everyone! I have something to say.” Sayaka stood up to gather everyone’s attention. “I think that we should all meet every morning for breakfast and take roll call, to make sure everyone is staying safe.”

“So just in case anyone has died… we can find out as early as possible?” Byakuya smirked.

“What? No, that’s not it at all!!” Sayaka shook her head furiously.

“I think it’s a good idea.” Makoto said in an attempt to get things back on track. “And as much as I hate to say it, Byakuya is right. It’s fine to hope for the best, but it’s not an excuse to be unprepared for the worst.”

“Well said!” Kiyotaka nearly shouted. “Preparedness for every scenario is something to be admired. Which is why we must strive to achieve it!”

“Yes… inability to adapt will only serve to hurt us in the long run. We should simply accept our predicament for what it is…” Celeste said solemnly. "...and live out the rest of our lives here. It is the only way to avoid the killing game."

“No, no, no! I won’t accept that!” Leon blurted out. “There are too many things I’ve got to do on the outside! I can’t stay here!”

“Yeah, There’s no way we can just give up on escape when it hasn’t even been a day yet!” Aoi agreed.

“But we’ve investigated and there doesn’t seem to be any way out.” 

“No, there is a way out.” Byakuya stated.

“Wait, you found a way out, Byakuya?” Leon rushed over to him. “What is it?”

“It’s quite simple. In fact, you already know the way out. All you have to do is kill someone.”

“Ok, I’ve had enough of you spewing shit every single time you open your mouth.” Mondo stood up and walked over to Byakuya. “I don’t give a shit if you’re some hot dude that appears on magazines or whatever. You’ll be needing plastic surgery after this.”

“WHOA WHOA WHOA WHOA STOP STOP STOP!!!” Sayaka and Kiyotaka rushed up and grabbed Mondo’s arms. Mondo struggled furiously, managing to shake the both of them off, but in doing so, knocked Sayaka to the ground.

He immediately stopped. “Shit… SHIT! Shit, are you ok?”

Sayaka brushed her disturbed hair out of her face. “Um, yeah, I’m fine.”

“Are you sure? No injuries? Nothing?”

“Um, yeah.”

“Pheeeeewwwww….” He let out a massive sigh of relief. “Hurting a girl is the worst thing a man can do. Fuck. I almost fucked up really bad.” He turned and gave Byakuya a dirty look. 

“You’d better thank Sayaka, since she’s the only thing stopping me from decking your shit eating face.”

“Hmph. I’m only telling the truth. It’s not my problem if you can’t handle it.” Was his response.

“So, uh… we meet up for breakfast every day?” Yasuhiro asked for confirmation.

“Yes.” Byakuya then left.

At this point, everyone started getting up to leave. Nobody wanted to stick around.

“Um, Makoto?”

“Yes, Chihiro?”

“Do you want to help me clean up and do the dishes?”

“Yeah, let’s do that.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm gonna be honest, this chapter is really all over the place. I may or may not be back to make some edits.
> 
> I hope that the rollercoaster of emotion that is the cooking scene had some sort of effect on you, because I was riding that rollercoaster right alongside the characters while I wrote it.
> 
> Anyways, thanks for reading my work, and I hope you are enjoying it.
> 
> Edit: I cleaned up some of the dialogue so that it's more clear. Let this be a lesson to me: always take the time to proofread.


	4. Prologue - Part 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Makoto gets to work on uncovering the mastermind. Monokuma displays some more immaturity.

Makoto and Chihiro took their time with the dishes. They had gotten deep into a conversation about story-telling, the nuances of a hero’s journey, and how to show character growth. Thus, they had no desire to rush their job. After an hour or so, they finally finished cleaning the dishes and setting them out to dry. They could have simply used the washing machines provided, but the prospect of working together was too appealing to pass up, so they ignored them.

“You know, I never would have imagined myself making a friend so quickly in an otherwise dreary situation like this.” Makoto said offhandedly as they returned to the cafeteria.

“A f-friend? Are you… talking about me?” Chihiro asked wide eyed.

“Who else would I be talking about? Um, sorry for just… saying that. I just kind of assumed, since, y’know…” Makoto scratched the back of his head.

“O-oh, well, um, I… Ehehehehe. Friends, huh?”

Well that was awkward.

But Makoto would not be forced into awkward silence. This awkwardness was only a springboard for him to leap upon and continue the conversation.

“You see? That kind of response is only proof we’re similar. We’re both really awkward, we’re both timid, scaredy cats even, and we’re both writers. It’s only natural that we’d get along. So… friends?”

She looked back up at him. “Friends.” She said cheerfully.

A moment of silence.

And then they both burst out laughing. “Oh my god, can we get any cheesier than this? Are- are you guys over there” Makoto pointed at the camera, “seeing this?”

“Which guys over there?” Chihiro asked.

“O-oh.” Oops, Makoto kind of just slipped that out. He wasn’t ready to share his broadcasting theory just yet, so instead... “Well, the masterminds who kidnapped us. I figured they were probably watching us. And I figured there’s probably more than one. I mean, if this place really is Hope’s Peak, then they would have had to install all these cameras and the machine guns and stuff. That’s not the work of a single person.”

“Hmm. Speaking of that, I can’t really wrap my head around how they got that done. I’m almost entirely sure that when I came to the school… there were no plates on the windows.”

“Huh. You’re right, I don’t remember any plates either. We were asleep for about an hour or so, right? Did they install every single plate during that time?”

“I kind of feel like that isn’t possible. Since they’re really tightly bolted in and all… and those plates look super heavy. And there were a ton of them.”

“Yeah, I can’t figure it out.” Makoto rested his cheek on his hand. It was all too confusing.

“Not to mention,” Chihiro continued, “I don’t think the school would just have machine guns lying around. Cameras, maybe, but machine guns?”

“Yeah, those would have to get installed by our captors too. No matter how I look at it, there’s no way they did that in just an hour. The guns seem to be remote controlled, and that would require some setting up, right? I don’t really know how that works, but it probably takes more than an hour.”

“Mhm.”

Then Makoto had a thought. A hopeful, beautiful thought.

“Wait, Chihiro, the fact that food is restocked… doesn’t that means there has to be some kind of secret passageway into the school from the outside?”

“Um, yeah, but what if they just used the door..?”

“Oh. Right. Wait, that’s still fine, because then the door would be open! We could possibly get through!”

“Yeah, but the security cameras and guns would stop us… and Rule #1 prevents us from going outside, so they’d probably just… kill us if we tried.”

“Yeah… darn it. But someone has to do the restocking. Not Monokuma, but an actual human being needs to at least deliver the food. If we could just catch a glimpse of whoever that is, it wouldn’t be against the rules, and we’d have a clue as to who our captor is!”

“Oh, you’re right! That might work!” Chihiro said excitedly.

“It’s worth a shot! We’d have to do a stakeout by the door overnight though.” Makoto said.

“Uhhh… maybe we should gather snacks?” Chihiro offered.

“Great idea.”

But before they could attack the pantry, Yasuhiro walked in.

“Oh, you two are still here? Did it really take you that long to wash the dishes?”

Makoto answered. “Well, we were talking about some other stuff after that, so no, but…”

“Well, whatever, that doesn’t matter. Makoto! Chihiro! I need your help taking inventory.”

Urk! He really was recruiting them to take inventory.

“Uh…” Makoto really wanted to refuse.

“Hey, come on dude, I’ve already asked like eight people and they almost all refused. We need as many hands as we can get on this so it doesn’t take too long… please.”

Makoto gave in. “Alright, fine, I can help you take inventory.”

“Then I’ll help too.” Chihiro said.

Just then, Sayaka and Kiyotaka walked in.

Yasuhiro was excited. “Oh, Sayaka! Kiyotaka!”

“Please call me Taka!”

“Taka, got it. Can you guys help me with taking inventory of the storage room?”

Sayaka smiled, but it had a tinge of melancholy. “I’d love to, but I planned on making dinner for everyone tonight.”

“And I’m going to be her assistant!” Taka declared.

“Oh. Well, at least you have a valid reason for skipping out.” Yasuhiro looked a bit dejected, but dinner was important, so he relented.

Makoto and Chihiro followed Yasuhiro to the storage room, where an annoyed looking Byakuya and Kyoko waited.

“B-Byakuya? You’re here?” Makoto wondered aloud.

“Simpleton. Of course I am. Out of everyone here, I’m actually taking this killing game seriously. Which means that an inventory of everything a killer could potentially use is necessary.” He responded.

“Right…” Byakuya was kind of scary, and more than a little rude, but it was hard to say that he was wrong.

Kyoko didn’t say anything.

“Alright!” Yasuhiro began handing out pencils and paper. “I’ll take these shelves over here. Makoto, you can take these ones. Chihiro, you can go over there. Byakuya, take those shelves. Kyoko, you can stay here and take stock of these shelves. Just write down what the item is and how many there are. Alright, now let’s get to it!”

They worked in complete silence for the next three hours. It was mind numbing, and when Makoto tried to break the silence and massage his dying brain by humming, Byakuya shut him down. But eventually, every item was written down and accounted for.

“I think we’re finally done…” Makoto groaned and spread himself out on the floor. All the crouching and bending down and peering through the shelves had really worn him out.

“Alright, last but not least, let’s all gather our sheets and take a picture of them so we have the inventory with us at all times.”

“A picture?”

“Our e-Handbooks have a picture taking function.” Yasuhiro explained.

“Most likely for the sake of gathering evidence should a murder occur.” Byakuya said bluntly.

“Well, yes.” Yasuhiro agreed. “And this inventory here… it is indeed evidence.”

They all took pictures. Embarrassingly, Makoto’s handwriting was by far the worst of the five, but it was still legible, so nobody complained.

“Alright dudes, thanks a lot for this.” Yasuhiro said.

Kyoko gave him a look like ‘did you seriously just call me dude?’

“I’m hungry though. Hopefully Sayaka and Taka made a whole lot for us.” Yasuhiro began to leave, but Makoto stopped him.

“Hold on. I uh, wanted to talk to you all about something.” Makoto began timidly.

“This better be worth my time…” Byakuya rolled his eyes.

“It will be! Just, um, listen for a little longer please. You guys know how Monokuma says that the food is restocked overnight?”

“Yes?”

“Well, we figured that the food has to come from the outside, right? So… we want to find out where it’s coming from and if it’s a viable escape route or not.”

“Impressive… it seems you’re actually quite intelligent.” Byakuya noted.

Don’t act like it’s such a surprise!

“A-anyways, even if we can’t escape, we can still hopefully at least gain some clues as to who our captors are if we see who’s delivering the food.” Makoto explained.

“I see… Makoto, you’re a pretty smart cookie!” Yasuhiro clapped his back. “So you want us to help with an overnight stakeout?”

“Yeah, that’s the gist of it. I’m afraid that if we stay up for too long, one of us might fall asleep, which would break one of the rules. That would be bad. So it’s better to have shifts.”

“You really thought about this! I think it’s a great idea!” Yasuhiro grinned. “But, uh, do you have any idea where they might be entering from?”

“No, which is why we’ll have to watch a few different places over the next few nights. But I figured we could start with the front door.”

“Oh, ok. Well, that sounds good to me.” Yasuhiro nodded.

They all agreed, even Byakuya, to take shifts watching the front door, in pairs. Yasuhiro offered to do two shifts, since he was used to having to stay up late for cases. Makoto and Chihiro would watch from 10 PM to 1 AM, Kyoko and Yasuhiro would watch from 1 AM to 4 AM, and Byakuya and Yasuhiro would watch from 4 AM till 7 AM, which is when the morning announcement would play.

“This is kind of scary, but also kind of exciting… I’m kind of looking forward to the night watch.” Chihiro admitted. 

Makoto felt the same, but didn’t have the words to express his nervous excitement, so he just nodded in agreement.

Everyone was feeling hungry after a boring task like taking inventory, so they went to get dinner.

Sayaka had created a veritable feast for the fifteen students. Nothing too fancy, but it was definitely a well balanced meal, it appeared there had been no kitchen disasters, unlike with Makoto’s attempt. Everyone showed up to eat except for Hifumi Yamada. He refused to “dine with mere peasants” as he put it.

After dinner, everyone dispersed. Makoto and Chihiro decided to go and check out some of the magazines in the laundry room as they waited for night time.

Makoto noticed Kyoko sitting alone in a corner of the cafeteria. She was the only one who had stuck around in the cafeteria, and she didn’t seem to be doing anything. “Hey Kyoko! Chihiro and I were going to go do some reading. You want to come with us?”

She looked up, slightly surprised. “...sure.” She said, after a while.

Chihiro looked at Makoto with a look of confusion, but Makoto just shrugged. Although she didn’t seem all that approachable, he felt that she was part of the little team of five that had formed in the storage room, and didn’t want her to feel left out in any way.

They went to the laundry room and picked through some of the magazines. They were packed with ads and were generally not all that interesting, until…

“Whoa. Whoa. WHOA.” Makoto stared at the cover of one of the magazines. “This is Byakuya, isn’t it?” And sure enough, it was. An entire magazine, dedicated to Byakuya Togami and his modelling.

The others rushed over to take a look. Crowding around the magazine, Makoto slowly flipped through it. Each and every page, Byakuya was trying on some new and interesting outfit, in various charming, even seductive poses. Makoto felt naughty, staring at his classmate like this.

But he couldn’t stop. They all stared at the pages with their breath held, as they took in each and every outfit and pose. Finally, they reached a page featuring Byakuya shirtless. Chihiro made a little noise. 

“Oh. My. God.” Makoto squeaked out. If he wasn’t interested in boys before, he just might be now. His abs were totally undeniable. “Wow, uh. He’s ripped.” He paused. “I feel totally wrong looking at him like this.”

“Y-yeah, maybe we should stop…” Chihiro said.

Makoto’s heart told him to keep going, but his brain took over and told him to listen to Chihiro. It was probably for the best if they stopped. He moved to close the magazine, but Kyoko suddenly grabbed his wrist.

Makoto nearly leapt with surprise. He stared over at Kyoko, whose face was completely red.

“No, ah, um…” She sputtered. “Nevermind. Let’s put it away.” She looked away.

Did she not want to stop? Damn, girl. She seemed so aloof and untouchable, but was a human being too, huh?

Chihiro grabbed the magazine and put it back on the rack, but paused. “Wait a minute, if we just leave this here, people are going to see it. Maybe we should hide it?”

“Uh, maybe. Well, it’s not like anything actually inappropriate is in there, but… it’s kind of weird seeing our classmate in there like that. And Byakuya might not like it.” Makoto said.

“...I can hide it. Er, get rid of it.” Kyoko stuck out her hand, still not looking at them.

Oooooohhhhh. I see how it is.

“Sure!” Makoto snatched the magazine from Chihiro’s hands and handed it to Kyoko. “Have fun with it!” He said cheerily.

“H-have fun with it? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Right, right.” Makoto laughed. “But hey, don’t be so embarrassed, I thought he was hot too.”

Kyoko looked at him incredulously, then rushed out of the room, cheeks burning.

“What was that all about, Makoto?” Chihiro looked worried.

“Nothing, it’s nothing. I trust that she’ll take care of that magazine for us. Yup. Very good care. Anyways, should we find some more to read, or should we call it a day?”

“Eh, after that, I feel like anything we look at will be a letdown.” Chihiro said.

Makoto nodded. “Yeah, maybe we should stop now. Nothing is going to top that.”

“To be honest, when I was looking at him, I…”

What’s this now?

“Byakuya… I really, um…”

Could it be…?

“I’m really jealous of him!” She blurted out.

Whaaatttttt?

“Jealous? Why are you jealous?” Makoto was now confused.

“Because, because…! Because he’s so strong! He’s so tall and muscular. I wish I was strong, just like him…” Chihiro grumbled.

“Oh… so you just want to be strong like him, huh?” Makoto didn’t really understand where this was coming from, but he wasn’t about to leave the topic.

“Yeah… I’ve always been weak for as long as I can remember, so I’d like to get at least a little stronger.”

“Maybe you could ask him to help train you? I’m sure that he has some workout routine, and you could just follow along. That would make you stronger, right?”

“Makoto, you’re a genius! I’m going to go find him right now!” She dashed off in search of Byakuya.

“What… was that all about?” Makoto scratched his head. “Well, whatever. What do I do now?”

Makoto decided to go to his room (which he hadn’t even visited until now) and take a nap in preparation for his night watch. 

\--------------------------------------------------

The alarm Makoto set on his e-Handbook went off. He sat up and rubbed his eyes, then checked the time. 9:50 PM, just as he wanted. He washed his face and left his room to go and start his night watch.

Chihiro was already there waiting for him.

“Hey Chihiro. What happened with Byakuya?”

“Oh, he uh… he told me to buzz off…”

“Oh.”

“But he also told me I could go and ask Mondo, since he’s the Ultimate Martial Artist! To be honest, I probably should have thought of him first…”

“So did you ask him?”

“No… I couldn’t find him, so I just came here.”

“But we’ve still got a few minutes remaining, you could have spent some more time looking.”

“Well… I just really didn’t want to be late, since this is super important.”

“I guess so.”

They sat and watched the entrance hall in silence for the next three hours, occasionally bumping each other to make sure the other wasn’t falling asleep. Makoto felt perky though, as that two hour nap really helped him out. He eventually got pretty hungry though, which was a shame, because he had forgotten to grab snacks for the job.

Right on time, Kyoko and Yasuhiro arrived. “Nothing yet?”

“Nah, we didn’t see anything.”

“Alright, we’ll take over. Go get some sleep.”

“Thanks.”

Makoto uneventfully went back to bed and fell asleep.

\-----------------------------------

The next morning, he woke up to an awful noise.

“Good morning everyone! It’s 7 AM and nighttime is now officially over! Time to rise and shine!”

Everyone was present for breakfast, even Hifumi. Though he didn’t look very happy about it. 

“Yo, eggs.” Yasuhiro plopped down in the seat next to him, looking rather tired.

“Please don’t call me eggs. But yeah, hi. How’d it go?”

“How'd what go?” He mumbled. "Oh right, the watch. We saw nothing. Nobody came through those doors."

"Huh." Makoto got curious, so he stood up. “I gotta check something. Be right back.”

He rushed off to the pantry, and took a look around. There were still empty spaces where he had taken the pasta and tomato sauce from before. So… the food wasn’t replaced?

Monokuma dropped from the ceiling. “Hey you! I know what you’re up to! But you’re not catching my food delivery guy!” He then vanished.

Suddenly, the PA system rang out in Monokuma’s voice. “Everyone, please gather in the gym! I have an announcement to make! And don’t think you can skip out, this is mandatory! Be there, or be dead!”

What was going on now?

Everyone went to the gym as asked, grumbling and moaning about having their breakfast interrupted.

“What is the meaning of this gathering?” Taka demanded.

“I’ve decided to give you guys a motive!” Monokuma said triumphantly.

“A motive?” Celeste said curiously.

“Yes! A motive to kill each other! And before you all start protesting, let me explain!” Monokuma kept talking to make sure nobody else would start. “First of all, I was actually planning on introducing a motive a little later! But SOMEONE started getting all nosy!” Monokuma stared furiously at Makoto.

“M-me?” He pointed at himself. Everyone else turned to look at him as well.

“Yes, you! You had the nerve to try and catch my food supplier in the act! Of course, I saw you doing it, so I called them and warned them to stay away, but that was really naughty of you! But… it’s not against the rules, so I can’t punish you directly. So instead, I’m just going to give you this motive I thought of just last night!”

“Wait, so you’re telling me that your food supplier does, in fact, come through the front door?” Byakuya questioned.

“What? No! I mean, maybe? Who knows?” Monokuma spluttered. “Anyways, that doesn’t even matter. What matters is… I’m not supplying you with food anymore!”

“Sigh… that’s so immature of you.” Makoto didn’t know where his cheeky attitude was coming from, but he knew that he was spitting facts. “This is all because I messed up your tile flooring by accidentally covering it with starch, right? And then I decided to try to catch your food supplier in the act. So now you’re acting really immature and denying all of us food.”

“That’s completely right!” Monokuma confirmed.

“Wow… how petty.” Leon shook his head.

“Smh.” Aoi said.

“SHUT UP! SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UPPPPPP!!!!” Monokuma screamed. “You guys don’t understand! You’re going to all starve to death unless one of you kills!”

“Wait, what?”

“I’m telling you that I’ll start resupplying once you guys start the killing game! So get to it if you don’t want to starve!” Monokuma vanished, not wanting to have to deal with any more sass..

He was right. The seriousness of the situation had not yet set in, and it was only a matter of time before everyone realized how much danger they were really in.

It was only a matter of time...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... yeah, Monokuma would have used his motive from the original game, but Makoto's kitchen mishap and determination to catch the food supplier caused Monokuma to change his mind and throw out a food related motive immediately. Monokuma is quite childish!
> 
> I feel like I'm not really giving some of the characters time to shine, but it's hard to figure out how to handle scenarios where all the characters are together and they have to react to a motive. I could go around and give everyone a turn to say their piece, but that's not all that fun to write and it's probably not that fun to read either, so you're stuck with my lazy version. But regardless!
> 
> Thank you for reading my work, and I hope you're enjoying it so far! Next up will be Chapter 1 proper.


	5. Chapter 1: The Stomach Screams Louder than the Heart - Daily Life Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A plan for food consumption is made, and another, more weighty plan is theorized.

Sayaka gathered everyone in the cafeteria. “Guys, we have to figure out a way to escape soon… otherwise…”

“We starve to death? Like we don’t already know that.” Toko snapped.

“Let us not speak of escaping for the time being.” Taka stood up. “We should first make sure we are organized, so we do not fall into pandemonium!”

“What organizing do we even need?” Aoi asked.

“I am glad you asked! We must organize a method for carefully rationing our food! If we do not manage our food wisely, we will run out shockingly quickly! And there will be no more random pantry raids!”

“B-but, my donuts…”

“Your donuts can wait! Overindulgence will only serve to hinder us in our endeavors to survive. Therefore! You shall be limited to one a day!”

“One a day…?” Aoi shook her head. “No way!”

“Yes way!” Taka said as a matter of factly.

“Ultimate Baseball Star? More like Ultimate Team Captain.” Leon snorted.

“Why yes, I was indeed the team captain! To call me an ultimate one, though… thank you for your kind words!” Taka bowed.

“Taka’s got the right idea.” Yasuhiro agreed. “Let’s take stock of all the food and draw out a plan for how we’re going to consume it. Makoto! Come help me take stock.”

Makoto had to put his foot down this time. “Sorry, but no. I already helped you with the inventory of the storage room, and that was quite honestly mind numbingly boring, and I never want to do anything like that ever again.”

“Oh, I see. Well, does anyone else want to volunteer?”

Sayaka and Taka were up for it, the goody two shoes they were, but nobody else wanted to help. Understandably so, given Makoto’s description of the job.

“Alright, the three of us will do it.” Yasuhiro said. “Three of us should be plenty, honestly. We’ll be done with taking stock and making a plan by lunch, so everyone meet back here at noon so we can eat lunch and go over the plan.”

“That being said, I think we should all eat together for every meal from now on.” Sayaka suggested.

“Tch.” Byakuya clicked his tongue, but didn’t object.

“You can’t force me to eat with the rest of you peasants.” Hifumi crossed his arms. “And you can’t stop me from eating whatever I want, whenever I want. So I’d suggest you just cancel all of your plans.”

Makoto had been trying his hardest to just ignore the Ultimate Affluent Progeny, but at this point, ignoring him would be impossible.

Mondo stomped and got out of his seat. “You might as well say that you don’t mind us all starving to death, because that’s pretty much what you’re saying.”

“Well, I don’t mind. I’d rather you all just starved to death. Would make things much easier for me.”

“Piece of shit.” In lieu of walking over and punching him in the face, which Mondo knew would never pass while Sayaka was around, Mondo instead launched a gob of spit that landed squarely on Hifumi’s cheek.

There was a stunned silence as the spit slowly rolled down Hifumi’s face.

And then Hifumi let out a horrifying, incomprehensible noise and launched himself at Mondo with speed that completely defied his physique. But Mondo was faster. As Hifumi reached towards Mondo, lunging, arms outstretched, Mondo quickly threw out a small uppercut that rattled his chin and stopped him dead.

At this point, everyone else had caught up to the action. Sayaka, Taka, and Leon sprung forward to hold Mondo back, as Hifumi just stood stock still with his eyes glazed over.

“M-Mondo! What did you do?” Sayaka screamed.

“I punched him. Obviously.”

“I-is he gonna be ok? He looks totally out of it…” Aoi asked.

“Pfft. I knocked him out, but he’s fine. His brain is just rolling around in his skull right now.” Mondo rolled his eyes. “And you guys can get off me already, I ain’t gonna do shit.”

“His brain is rolling around in his skull!? That sounds terrible!” Aoi gasped.

“Well, it’s not a comfortable feeling, for sure, but he aint gonna suffer any permanent damage or shit.” Mondo replied, shaking off his classmate’s slackening grips.

“So… what do we do with him?” Sakura said rather ominously.

“T-tie him up! He said he’d kill us, so..!” Toko jabbed her finger at the unresponsive Hifumi.

“He didn’t say he’d kill us or anything, he just said he wouldn’t mind if we died…” Yasuhiro reasoned. “But honestly, you might be right about tying him up.”

“What? That’s inhumane!” Sayaka protested. “We can’t do that to him! How can you even suggest something like that?”

“H-he’s dangerous!” Toko bit her fingernail ferociously. “Of course I’m suggesting something like that! If we let him be, he’d start s-stealing food and putting it in his room!”

“I have no doubt that he would.” Byakuya agreed.

“But even so… we can’t tie him up! We need to do something that isn’t tying him up!” Sayaka pleaded.

“Like what?” Even Taka, who was a goody two shoes as well, was open to the idea of detaining Hifumi.

“Um… maybe we could convince him to abide by our plans? Or… if that doesn’t work…”

“It won’t.” Byakuya interjected.

“Um… if that doesn’t work, then we could…” Sayaka searched desperately for a solution, but nothing came to her. “I… I don’t know.”

“So, if none of us have a better idea, we’ll tie him up for now, try to convince him later, and then make a decision depending on his answer?” Yasuhiro summarized.

“Actually… I have an idea.” Sakura began.

Everyone was surprised. She was one of the least talkative students, and had stood on the sidelines for all the prior discussions. For her to speak up now was unexpected.

“We could simply assign a bodyguard of sorts to prevent him from taking any excess food during the day.” Sakura explained.

“Oh, and during the nighttime, we could just block his dorm room so that he can’t escape, then open it up for him after the morning announcement.” Yasuhiro stated.

“Actually, that is unnecessary, since the cafeteria is closed during the night.”

“Oh, really? Then it’s all fine.”

“That’s a really good idea.” Leon said. “But there’s one little problem…”

“What’s that?” Aoi prompted.

“I don’t think anyone would want to guard this guy for an entire day.” Leon looked at Hifumi (who was still standing and still unconscious) with distaste.

“I will do it.” Sakura folded her arms. “I came up with such an idea because I would be willing to do it.”

“For real?” Leon gaped. “Damn, thanks!”

Sayaka rushed up to Sakura and clasped her hands. “Thank you! Thank you! Because of you, we won’t have to…” She trailed off.

Sakura was a bit abashed, and couldn’t hold eye contact with her. “Please, don’t mention it. I am simply making my contribution to the group.”

Despite the fact that Sakura had willingly volunteered, Makoto still felt sorry for her. But then again, nobody else was really qualified to guard Hifumi. The only people who were certainly strong enough to repel his girth were Mondo and Sakura, and Mondo would be liable to start beating the tar out of him, which would not be good. Sakura, who could control herself, would be the better choice.

“Well, that’s settled.” Celeste folded her hands. “Perhaps you should escort him back to his room for now so that he can rest?”

“Mmm. That I shall do.” Sakura guided the unresponsive Hifumi out of the cafeteria.

“Alright… well, now I guess we should get to counting our food and making a plan.” Yasuhiro gestured to the kitchen. “Sayaka, Taka, come with me.”

As they left to take stock, everyone else began to disperse as well.

Makoto shifted over. “Hey, now’s your chance.” He whispered to Chihiro. “Mondo’s walking off, so if you want to ask him to train you, you should follow him, otherwise you won’t know where to find him.”

“Oh, right. Thanks!” She got up to follow Mondo.

Makoto watched proudly, pleased that he had helped to remind his friend. This pride was very short lived, as he realized that he now felt quite alone without his friend’s presence. What would he do now?

“Hey, Makoto! Leon’s teaching us how to play blackjack! You wanna join us?” Aoi called from one of the tables. Celeste and Junko were there too.

“Wait, you guys want to gamble with the Ultimate Gambler? Why?” He questioned.

“It’s gonna be fun! We aren’t betting anything, so it’s all just for fun.” She explained. “Now come on!”

Might as well, he thought to himself. But then Leon gave a look and did some brow wiggling movements that somehow conveyed this message:

“Dude, I’m surrounded by hot chicks and I want it to stay that way, so please don’t go ruining things by adding your herbivorous male self into the mix.”

Having (by some miracle) understood this message, Makoto refused. “Sorry, but I’ve got other things to do.” This was a lie.

He left the cafeteria. Ideally, he’d find someone to spend the next few hours with, since there wasn’t much to do in the school other than talk to people. After ruling out all the people who were busy doing something with someone else, the only candidates for a hangout left were Kyoko, Byakuya, and Toko.

Makoto decided to search for Kyoko, since she seemed the most agreeable of them.

He peeked through all the rooms. Oh, there’s Toko, sifting through the magazines in the laundry room.

Sensing Makoto’s presence, she whipped around. “You!”

“M-me?”

“Yes, you! Do you know who took that magazine?”

“Which magazine?” Makoto had a sneaking suspicion he knew which magazine it was.

“The one with Byakuya! I was gonna look at it again, but some… _cow_ took it!”

Yup, that was the one.

“Uh… I don’t know who took it. I didn’t even know that there was a magazine in here with Byakuya on it.” This was of course, a blatant lie. Makoto thought back. When did she even have the time to come in here and read that magazine? Did she sneak in while everyone else was investigating on the first day? That was the only possible time she could have seen that magazine.

“Tch.” She bit her fingernail. “When I find that cow… grrrrr… I was being generous, by leaving it here! But I should have taken it! Gaaaaahhh!!!!”

She looked at Makoto, who was quivering in fear at this point. “Hmph. I bet you think that I’m disgusting and weird, for caring so much about a magazine, right? RIGHT?” She accused him.

“No! No! Not at all!” Where was this coming from? He hadn’t done anything wrong, and he was getting attacked! This was scary!

“Stop lying!”

“Ok, ok, fine! You got me! I uh, I think you’re kinda weird.” Makoto admitted. “But you’re not disgusting, or anything like that!”

“Really?” She calmed down for a second. “Wait, you’re just admitting one thing to get away with the other! It’s a classic maneuver!”

“NO! NOOOOOO!!!!!” Makoto racked his mind for something that could calm her down. “Uh, besides, why do you even need that magazine when you’ve got the real deal?”

“You know that he’d never just strip on command, so if I want to see his abs, I’ve gotta see it in the magazine!” She responded.

Makoto sensed a chance to reaffirm his lie, and also try to defuse the situation. “Wait, you’re telling me that he took a shirtless pic in that magazine you were talking about?” Makoto, of course, had seen it himself, but asking about it was a good way of pretending that he hadn’t.

“Wait a minute... You’re trying to change the subject! Why? Because you really do think that I’m disgusting, and you’re trying to not admit it!”

Whaaaaaattttt????? This girl seriously just saw through his ploy that easily? It was such an innocent question!

“No, no, I’m only trying to change the subject because you’re so angry! I really don’t think that you’re disgusting, I was only trying to calm you down!”

“Well you failed!”

“Yes! Yes I did!”

“Good!”

Makoto gave up at this point. “You know what? Fine, believe whatever you want, but think about this for a second: Does my opinion actually matter to you at all?”

Toko thought about it. “Actually, the opinion of a wimpy little dink like you doesn’t matter. Anyways, get out of here.”

With pleasure, Makoto thought.

It had just been a minute or two of yelling, but Makoto’s mind was completely exhausted. He needed to recharge. So he walked back out into the halls, and simply lay down on the ground and stared at the ceiling lights.

He wondered if he could somehow get the school to lose power, the lock on the front door would be disabled, and he could walk right out without fear of the guns shooting him down. Of course, the lights would also go out, and he’d need a way to see. Maybe he could just use the gas stove to light something on fire and use it as a torch?

He absentmindedly looked over the rules again.

Nothing in the rules prohibited the destruction of anything other than Monokuma, the security cameras, and the video monitors. Maybe if he destroyed the machine guns... But how would he go about doing that? Chances are, they’d just get replaced as well.

But that wouldn’t be so bad either. If he just destroyed everything and got Monokuma to pay for it, they’d start running out of budget, and maybe Monokuma would cancel his little game and let them go? Nah, he’d just add another rule to the rulebook part way through and stop him. If he was going to destroy something important, it should be something very important, that even if replaced, could give a lasting impact.

Something like…

He wasn’t sure. Maybe the machine gun at the entrance hall. Then they could all try breaking out of the door and… nah. The door can’t be broken, so forget about it. Maybe destroy the machine gun in one of the classrooms, and then destroy one of the plates and exit through the window? That seemed like a good plan.

Of course, the crux of the issue would be how to destroy those things in the first place.

But Makoto had a perfect idea.

He got up off of the ground and made his way to the storage room, where he found two sturdy metal rods. They didn’t seem to serve much purpose other than as a bludgeoning tool, but Makoto had different plans for them. He stored them away in his room for now, though.

Next, he visited the kitchen. Yasuhiro and the rest had finished with inventory, and Sayaka was cooking again, with Taka as a helper. But he wasn’t interested in lunch. He checked for oven mitts, and found a few pairs of them. Perfect. He left them there. Sayaka and Taka gave him confused looks, but Makoto didn’t even acknowledge them.

There was the issue of the cameras though. His plan would take a while, so Monokuma would probably see what was going on, and stop him. But he had an idea for a smokescreen that could potentially stop Monokuma.

Lastly, he needed to cover up the camera in one of the classrooms. The best idea would be to cover the cameras in every single classroom to create decoys, but it wouldn’t last long. Even better would be to take out the power. Maybe he could do it by turning on all the irons in the laundry room? It probably wouldn’t be enough, but it was worth a shot.

Also, he needed a partner. Someone he could trust and help him carry out his plan. He paced back and forth briskly. Chihiro might be a good candidate, but she might freak out in the middle. Yasuhiro would be the best choice, probably, but he’s currently busy with drawing out a plan for food consumption, and is acting as a bit of a leader to the rest of the group, so he’d have his hands full enough with that. Byakuya… was kind of scary, so Makoto didn’t want to pair with him. Maybe Kyoko could help him?

He’d have to do this stealthily, though. And he needed time to mentally prepare himself. Tomorrow, he thought. Tomorrow, he would carry out his escape plan. For now, let’s get all the pieces set in place.

But first, he had to eat lunch with the rest.

“Alright, everyone, here are your portions. This is all you’ll be getting, so don’t ask for seconds, alright?” Yasuhiro commanded.

“Hey, why’s her portion bigger than mine?” Leon complained, referring to Sakura’s plate.

“Why, it’s because she is bigger than you!” Taka said. “More body mass means more food! Based on each of our heights, Yasuhiro has calculated the exact amount of food that is sufficient for each student, for each meal!”

“Ugh…” Leon groaned. “I guess that’s fair, but I don’t like it.”

To his dismay, Makoto was actually the second shortest student, with only Chihiro being shorter than him, which meant he had a rather small portion.

“Also, we’ve given Hifumi a little more than we calculated, since he’s noticeably heavy for his height.”

Hifumi had opened his mouth to complain, but this shut him up. Surprisingly, he hadn’t said a word about Mondo or his new bodyguard situation. Had Sakura managed to explain it to him in a way that he accepted it?

After finishing off his portion (which left him feeling rather unsatisfied), Makoto got up to leave, but Yasuhiro stopped him.

“Hey, we still need to discuss our food plan. So don’t go leaving just yet!”

Yasuhiro called everyone to attention. “Alright, here’s our basic schedule.” He took out a large whiteboard. “Every day, we meet for breakfast at 7:30 AM, eat lunch at noon, then eat dinner at 7:00 PM. Also, after breakfast, we’re going to allow everyone to pick a snack of their choosing, so they can have something to tide them over for the rest of the day. Use your snacks wisely, since they’re all you’ve got in terms of free eating.”

Taka walked into the room carrying a huge basket filled with all sorts of packaged goods. “Today, however, you shall choose your snacks right now!” He announced. “So take your pick!”

Everyone crowded around the basket, pushing and shoving to get what they wanted.

“Hey, Hifumi! I saw that! No sneaking away with three! Put those back!”

“Dude, quit shoving! There’s enough for everyone, so back off!”

“Shut the fuck up, I’m barely even touchin’ you.”

“I neeeeeeed my donuuuutttsssss.”

“Ouch! Hey! Who stepped on my toes?”

“Fuck, sorry.”

Eventually, everyone had gotten the snack they wanted, and moved away from the basket.

“I trust everyone to control themselves and stay away from the pantry, and from this basket.” Taka said.

“You got it, captain.” Leon said, already opening his bag of potato chips.

Makoto looked at his own snack. He had chosen a custard filled bread. It looked so tantalizing, but he forced himself to look away from it. He’d save it for when he really needed a burst of sugar.

Also, he had changed his mind. Yasuhiro would be a better candidate for helping him with the escape plan, since they could enter the baths together without looking suspicious. “Hey, I’m gonna go take a bath.” He said, giving Yasuhiro a look.

He left without hearing what anyone else had to say.

Yasuhiro joined him in the bathhouse shortly. “So, what did you wanna talk about?”

Makoto wrote on a notepad while he talked. “Well, I’m wondering what Monokuma’s purpose was for locking us in here.” He passed the pad to Yasuhiro.

It read: Just because there are no cameras doesn’t mean there aren’t listening devices. I will communicate using this pad. Continue the conversation, but don’t have it lead anywhere.

Yasuhiro wrote “ok” and passed it back.

“Well, can’t it be something as simple as, ‘The mastermind is some insane maniac who just wants to watch children break down and kill each other’?”

“Maybe, but I kinda feel like that’s way too shallow of a reason.” Makoto passed the pad.

The pad: I have a plan to get out of here. It involves heating up some metal rods and melting our way through one of the plated windows.

“You think that our captor has some kind of hidden motive? It’s nice that you’re speculating, but I don’t really think that we can prove anything right now.” Yasuhiro wrote his response.

The pad: Give me more details.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right. Sigh…” Makoto stopped talking and focused on writing. After a very long time, he finished. “I guess we should just take a bath or whatever so Monokuma doesn’t get too suspicious of us.” Hopefully this comment would get Monokuma to focus on their conversation, and not whatever it might be hiding.

The pad: Ok, so there are metals rods in the storage room. If we heat them up using the stove in the kitchen, to the point where they are white hot, and use them to destroy the machine gun in one of the classrooms, as well as melt one of the windows open, we can get out. The biggest issue is Monokuma seeing us, but if we cover up the cameras or somehow take out the power to disable them, we might have enough time to pull this off.

Yasuhiro wrote back: I have a few issues. Those plates are absurdly thick, so melting through them seems impossible. However, if we melted the bolts, we could potentially remove it. So ideally we’d have five people, each holding a rod, to melt the machine gun and each of the bolts all at the same time. Next, we can actually use some of the portable stoves in the kitchen to heat up the rods, so we could do it here in the bathhouse, without Monokuma realizing. We could try using the portable stoves on the window plate itself, but that would require holding it up, and the heat will be less focused, so I think we stick with the rods. Also, I hope you have an idea of how we’ll hold the rods, since they’re going to be absurdly hot.

The response: We can use oven mitts. There are plenty of them, so don’t worry about that. And good idea about melting the bolts. Also, portable stoves are perfect. So, any ideas of who we should get to help us with the plan?

He passed the pad back, and Yasuhiro wrote: Who else but Chihiro, Kyoko, and Byakuya. We’ve kinda become the power rangers together, so I see no need to form a new team.

Makoto just nodded instead of writing back.

Yaushiro grabbed the pad back and kept writing: As for how to deal with the camera, I have an idea that will take out the power. So just leave it to me when the time comes. Also, leave it to me as well for explaining the plan to the others.

With nothing left to discuss, the two took a bath so as to not look suspicious when they exited.

Makoto took a trip to the cafeteria and grabbed the small trash bin, which contained some packaging from the snacks that some people had impatiently consumed, and took it to the incinerator. He dumped it in, discreetly adding the note pages from his conversation with Yasuhiro, and incinerated it all.

The plan was underway. It was going to work. It _had_ to work. Otherwise… everyone would starve to death, eventually. Makoto realized that nobody had mentioned for how long their food plan would end up lasting them. A month? Two months? Maybe as little as a couple of weeks? But it wouldn’t matter, as long as his escape plan succeeded. That was all he needed to focus on. Escape, escape, escape. 

It was the only thing that mattered...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Makoto seems to have come up with a pretty good idea for escaping, but not all of the details have been pounded out just yet. I wonder how his plan will play out? 
> 
> (Yeah, you can probably guess it won't go perfectly, this is only the first chapter, after all, we can't have the story ending just yet.)
> 
> Anyways, thanks for reading my work! I hope you're enjoying it so far.


	6. Chapter 1: The Stomach Screams Louder than the Heart - Daily Life Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Not a whole lot happens in this chapter... it is but a prelude to the main event.

Makoto was roused from his state of deep thought by a small tap on the shoulder.

“Oh, hey Chihiro, what’s up?”

Chihiro bit her lip and twirled her leg back and forth. “Um… I’ve got a favor to ask…”

“Oh, ok. But before that…! How’d it go with Mondo? Did he agree to help you train?” Makoto asked excitedly.

“W-well, that’s what the favor is about…” She looked down shamefully.

“What? Did he refuse? Do I need to help you convince him?”

“No… I didn’t even ask him in the first place.” She started to tear up. “H-he’s too scary for me to talk to alone… so I kind of just followed him… and didn’t say anything.”

Makoto had an internal bruh moment. Outwardly, however, he tried to keep his face neutral. “So you want me to go talk to him with you.”

“Yes…”

Makoto considered his options. He could refuse and totally let his friend down… which would be a no no, so that option is out. He could ask Mondo to train Chihiro, and then leave immediately… which would be kind of cruel to Chihiro as well, just leaving her alone with the meathead. And he could also stick around and join in on the training… which would also be a problem, since he didn’t want to have to train.

Makoto decided on the path of self-sacrifice: option three it was.

“Alright, let’s go ask him right now. Do you know where he is?” Makoto said.

“Last I saw him, he was in the nurse’s office…”

And so the two set off in search of Mondo. And there he was, staring at the medicine cabinet in the nurse’s office.

“Ugh… what the fuck was I supposed to be looking for again?” He mumbled.

“Mondo. Looking for something? Did you get injured?” Makoto asked.

“Nah, I didn’t get injured. I’m just looking for the vitamins and shit that my trainer asked me to take weekly. But I don’t remember any of that shit. So I’m hoping looking at this stuff will help me remember.” He explained, and continued to stare intently at the cabinet.

“Let’s see…” Makoto joined him.

“Oh! This is it!” Mondo grabbed a bottle off the shelf. “This shit is pepto bismol. I think my trainer said something about it at some point, so I should probably be drinking this stuff.” He grabbed the lid.

“No no!” Chihiro ran to stop him, but couldn’t reach up to where his arm was holding the bottle. “When your trainer said that, did you have an upset stomach, or food poisoning, or something like that?”

“Hmmmmm… can’t fuckin remember something small like that.” He continued to unscrew the lid. 

“Pepto bismol is not a vitamin, Mondo!” She yelled exasperatedly. “Don’t take it unless you’ve got an upset stomach!”

“Oh, really? Well you’re the smart one, so you’re probably right.” He put the bottle back on the shelf. “How do you know about vitamins anyway, kid?”

“I think that this much is just common knowledge…” Makoto said.

“Well, common knowledge ain't exactly my shit, you know?” Mondo said sagely.

“Mondo, I don’t think any of the supplements you’re looking for will be here. This is all just medicine. Vitamins don’t go in here. You’d probably have better luck looking in the storage room.”

“Oh, thanks man.” Mondo turned to leave.

“Please wait a minute! If you don’t remember which vitamins to take, it’s probably better if you just don’t take any at all. If you start taking random vitamins, it can be bad for your health.”

“Really? But they’re healthy. Ugh, I don’t understand any of this stupid vitamin shit.” Mondo groaned.

“Well, regardless of taking vitamins, you still need to work out, right?” Makoto segued into the next topic. “If you don’t mind, Chihiro and I would like to join you. If that’s ok?”

“Huh? Sure, but you ain’t gonna be able to keep up with my regimen.” Mondo said. “But if you wanna work out, then come to the gym with me and we can do it right now.”

“R-really? Thank you!” Chihiro did a small bow.

Once they reached the gym, Mondo came to a realization.

“Aw fuck, we don’t have any weights to lift. Whatever, we can just do some push ups and sit ups. And some other stuff that I don’t really remember. My trainer took care of all the specific shit.” Mondo got onto the ground and started doing push ups.

“Wait! Wait a moment, aren’t we supposed to do them together?” Makoto asked.

“Sure, we can do them together. So get going!” He kept doing push ups.

The other two got down on the ground and joined him in doing push ups. Mondo was moving up and down like a machine, whereas the other two were struggling with each and every “up”.

“H-how many are we supposed to do…?” Makoto called out.

“However many until you can’t do’em anymore!” Mondo yelled.

“WHAT?” Was Makoto’s response.

Chihiro gave up after just fifteen pushups. Makoto felt like he could give up at fifteen as well, but he didn’t want to seem like that much of a wimp, so he pushed as hard as he could and got to twenty five pushups, then collapsed.

“Man, you guys are weak as fuck.” Mondo said nonchalantly as he performed his sixty-seventh pushup.

The two sat and caught their breath as they watched Mondo move up and down. Eventually, he finally stopped. “Whew! That was pretty good.” He said.

Next they did sit ups. This was much easier than push ups. Makoto got to a total of sixty sit ups before he felt that he couldn’t continue. Chihiro stopped at fifty.

Mondo was unstoppable as usual, but he ended up getting bored at one hundred and fifty and stopped there.

“Alright! That was good!” Mondo said.

“What’s next?” Makoto was afraid to ask, but he did so anyway.

“Uh, I dunno. I can’t remember any of the more complicated shit, so I guess we’re done here.”

“WHAAAAATTTTTT?????”

And so the training session ended. Chihiro was very pleased with the results, but Makoto absolutely hated it. The training was half-assed and just left him feeling very very sore.

Maybe we could ask Sakura next time… she seems like she has her stuff way more together than Mondo does…

Oh wait, but Sakura is busy making sure Hifumi doesn’t do anything. So either Hifumi would have to join in on the training (ha ha yeah no) or Sakura would have to pass the duty off to someone else. A pity.

Dinner was on the horizon.

Makoto ate another really meager meal. It was depressing. But thankfully, Yasuhiro had an announcement that perked him right up.

“Everyone! I propose we have a bath party! Makoto and I were in there earlier and I thought that everyone should experience it.”

“Sounds stupid. Count me out.” Toko immediately said.

Damn it.

Byakuya raised an eyebrow. “You want to have a bath party with everyone?”

“Yes! Everyone! I want everyone to please attend.” Yasuhiro confirmed.

“Then you should attend, Toko. I don’t think anyone should skip out on this.” Byakuya said.

“O-oh… if you say so.” She blushed.

Nice save Byakuya.

And so everyone went to the bathhouse together. Hifumi had to be dragged along by Sakura, though.

“Alright everyone. Let’s get in there and have some fun!” Yasuhiro said, while taking out a notepad and passing it around.

“Alright!” Some of the cheerier students said.

A moment of silence ensued as everyone read the notepad. Makoto took a look at it just in case, although he figured he of all people didn’t really need to see it.

It said: Makoto created a plan to escape the school. Don’t discuss this out loud, because there may be listening devices. The plan will be carried out after lunch tomorrow. I want everyone to attend lunch as usual, but eat slowly. Those of us who know the specifics of the plan will eat quickly and leave. Once I show up to get you, just follow me and we’ll be able to escape. Please trust me on this, and we’ll all escape together.  
P.S. The reason only some people get to know the specifics is to 1. Prevent accidental leaks of information to Monokuma and 2. Having a large group move all at once will look suspicious, so it needs to be done at the last moment. Therefore, most people won’t need to know the specifics.

Everyone nodded in agreement. Yasuhiro had been the most reliable person since they had all arrived, and they trusted him. If he was endorsing the plan, then it was a solid one.

Yasuhiro gestured for the pad back, then flipped to a new page, wrote something big on it, and showed it to everyone. It read: NOW EVERYONE GO TAKE A BATH SO WE AREN'T SUSPICIOUS. 

While most people got into their respective baths, Chihiro decided instead to simply hang out in the sauna, wrapped up in towels. She looked nervous. Hmmm.

Leon sighed deeply. “That wall…” he gestured to the wall. “Too bad that it’s so solid.”

“Uh, no shit it’s solid. The fuck are you on?” Mondo said.

Yasuhiro nodded in understanding. “I agree… it is quite a shame that it is so solid.”

Byakuya gave them a cold look that seemed to scream: I’m not even going to dignify that with a response.

At this, Makoto realized that the wall they were pointing to was the wall separating the boy’s bath from the girl’s bath. He facepalmed, and, agreeing with Byakuya’s assessment, said nothing. Now he wanted to leave. The bathwater had been dirtied by their ugly minds. Makoto expected nothing less from Leon, but Yasuhiro? What a disappointment.

Taka didn’t seem to pick up on any of this though, since he would have surely chewed them out if he did understand.

Over in the corner of the bath, Hifumi was mumbling and grumbling and moaning about having to share a bath with commoners. But he wasn’t causing any trouble, so it was ok.

After they exited, Byakuya spoke to Makoto. “Well that was one of the most unpleasant things I have ever had to do.” He sighed deeply. “The things I have to put up with…”

Makoto wouldn’t go quite so far to say that it was that unpleasant. “Well, you did put up with it, so… thank you?”

“Hmph. Your gratitude is completely unnecessary. All you need to do in recompense is live up to my expectations.” He walked off.

Makoto realized he was talking about the plan. Yes… Makoto silently promised. I will live up to your expectations, but more importantly, I will live up to my own expectations. We will escape. I will make sure of it myself.

Makoto and Yasuhiro silently figured out what to do next. Stealthily, they concealed the portable stoves and oven mitts with their bodies and jackets, and transferred them to the bathhouse. Makoto grabbed three extra metal rods from the storage room, and added them to the two in his room, and went back to the bathhouse to deposit them, making sure to keep them fully hidden.

“Is everything good?” Makoto asked vaguely.

“Yup. It’s all fine.” Yasuhiro affirmed.

As the nighttime announcement played, they returned to their rooms.

Makoto was so nervous, he could hardly sleep. He ran through the escape plan hundreds of times in his head, as if he were counting sheep. Eventually, his mental trial runs exhausted him, and he fell asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wonder how the plan will go? There's still one little thing missing from the equation... I wonder if it's been properly worked out?
> 
> This is a pretty short update but I figured it was a good place to end the chapter. The next update will probably be a little longer.
> 
> As always, if you're enjoying my work, thank you so much!


	7. Chapter 1: The Stomach Screams Louder than the Heart - Daily Life Part 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things go wrong.

“Good morning everyone! It’s 7 AM and nighttime is now officially over! Time to rise and shine!”

Makoto jolted up. Not only was he awake… he was WOKE. He flew out of bed, got dressed, and ran to the bathhouse.

Everything was still in place. Nobody had disturbed the escape equipment overnight. Makoto let out a sigh of relief.

Actually, the bathhouse was one of the places that was off limits during the nighttime, so nobody could have gotten in during the night anyways.

Makoto wasn’t sure how long it would take for the metal rods to heat up properly, so he decided to get started now. He propped them all up so they’d be in the flame of the portable stove, then turned the stove on. But… he should probably get to the cafeteria for breakfast. 

He realized that, in his excitement, he had rather conspicuously ran into the bathhouse. With any luck, Monokuma might not realize anything was going on… but that was too much to hope for. But then again, all he had was hope.

Breakfast was a quiet affair, and you could cut the tension in the air with a knife. People selected their snacks in a much more civilized affair than yesterday, and peacefully left the room to mill about. Nobody was in the mood for talking or even basking in each other’s company.

And so the next four hours passed without anything happening.

Makoto’s heart was lodged in this throat while he ate his lunch. He was shaking uncontrollably. He had thought he was mentally prepared for the responsibility, but… there was so much riding on the success and failure of the plan. He didn’t know if he could ever accept it if he ended up failing.

And that’s why he shut the idea of failure out of his mind. He locked it away, in a dark place where it would never be able to resurface. Succeed. Escape. There is no other option. There is no other possibility.

With his fears stored a million miles away, Makoto finished his lunch in a lucid state. He was ready. His plan would go without a hitch, and they’d all escape within the hour. Everything would be completely fine.

He met with Yasuhiro, Chihiro, Kyoko, and Byakuya in the bathhouse. The rods were hot and ready. In mitted hands, they held the hot rods, ready to rush to classroom no.1 and melt some bolts.

“Alright… now, we wait for the lights to go out.” Yasuhiro said.

A few moments went by, and then the lights all suddenly flicked out. Makoto wondered how Yasuhiro had managed that.

He took out a battery powered flashlight and they ran to the classroom.

“Alright, quickly!” He ran to the machine gun mounted on the ceiling, stood on the table, and rammed the hot rod into the gun’s barrel, slowly but surely melting it down.

The rest chose one of the four bolts and held their rods to it. Makoto could taste the freedom already. He was so close! The minutes rolled by, and the bolts were beginning to feel softer.

“Ok, I’m getting the others!” Yasuhiro threw the rod haphazardly to the ground, picked up his flashlight, and ran out the door, the machine gun successfully ruined.

The four continued to hold their rapidly cooling rods to the bolts. Makoto couldn’t help but become anxious now. Would the heat be enough? Maybe the rods would just cool down before the bolts could be properly removed… No! Don’t think of failing. You’re going to succeed. You’re going to make it out! Just calm down, and hold that rod in place.

“Everyone, move out of the way.” Byakuya announced.

Everyone backed off instinctively as Byakuya raised his hand and swung his rod down, bashing into his bolt. The bolt shuddered and bent slightly.

“Ha ha ha…” He laughed. He bashed it again. Once. Twice. Thrice. Four times… and the bolt clattered to the ground, melting a searing whole in the floor.

Yes! They could do it! That was one bolt down! They could possibly remove the others!

Byakuya tried smacking the other bolts, but they wouldn’t move. Maybe his rod happened to be hotter than the others?

And so they continued to heat the bolts while Byakuya stood watch.

The minutes passed... strange, shouldn’t Yasuhiro be back by now?

Byakuya took a flashlight out of his own pocket. “I’m going to find Yasuhiro. I’m afraid something might have happened.” He turned the flashlight on and quickly strode towards the dorm building.

“Should- shouldn’t someone go with him?” Chihiro suggested.

“I can do it.” Kyoko stood up and ran towards the door, but the instant she got there…

A black figure appeared in the door frame, grabbed Kyoko’s head, and slammed her into the doorframe. She crumpled like a sack of potatoes. 

Chihiro let out an ear splitting shriek as the darkly clad figure zipped into the room, grabbed her by the mouth to shut her up, and smashed the back of her head into the very plate they were trying to remove. Makoto couldn’t move. He was in complete shock.

The figure loomed over Makoto’s tiny form. Regaining his senses, Makoto held out his hot rod like a sword, trembling.

“There is no escape…” The figure said in a muffled voice through their mask. Makoto couldn’t make out their features. They wore a black hood and mask, as well as black gloves, pants, and shoes. The only thing he could see were their eyes, which were just as black as the rest of their outfit.

Makoto yelled and struck out wildly in a panic, but missed. The figure then grabbed him by the head and smashed him into the floor.

\--------------------------------------------------  
Byakuya heard Chihiro’s scream get cut short. What was going on now? He turned and rushed back to the classroom. He got to the door, and just as he did, a figure clad fully in black slammed into him, knocking him to the floor. Byakuya rolled to his feet as gracefully as he could manage, and ducked past the figure’s attempt to grab his head. He threw out a punch, but the figure dodged out of the way and stuck out their leg, knocking Byakuya back. They then turned tail and fled towards the dorm building. Byakuya thought fast. How did the figure sneak past him? The only true answer is that they didn’t: they were hiding somewhere in the class building, then moved to attack his comrades when Byakuya had left to find Yasuhiro.

Byakuya made haste and flew after the figure, seeing them duck into the storage room. The fool. That was just a dead end! He rushed to apprehend them, but slipped on something. Blood? Barely managing to keep his balance, Byakuya ignored the blood and continued his pursuit. He opened the door, heard a huge crashing noise, then ran to the back to find-

Lined up at the very back of the storage room were five unconscious bodies. Sayaka, Leon, Yasuhiro, Celeste, and Junko all sat lined up, dressed in the exact same black garb, slumped against the wall.

“What in the hell is this?” Byakuya yelled as loudly as he could dare.

Just then, the lights came back on, and Monokuma dropped into the room.

“Oh, how naughty, how very very naughty! Looks like we’ve got some trouble afoot! Too bad about your cute little escape plan… looks like it’s been foiled! But by whom? I wonder… Hee hee!” The bear did a little twirl and hopped away.

“Damn it…” Byakuya cursed. He knelt down and carefully inspected each of the victims, opening their eyelids, but each and every one of them was genuinely unconscious. The attacker had to be in here somewhere… maybe the bodies were just a decoy and they were waiting for an opening to escape?

Byakuya scoured the rest of the storage room, but nobody else was there. So the attacker must be one of the five...

Suddenly, Aoi threw the door open. Seeing the bodies and Byakuya, she screamed. “AAAAAAAHHHHH!!!! Byakuya! He- he…!”

“Shut up, woman! Whatever you’re thinking, it’s not the truth. I didn’t attack a single one of these idiots.” Byakuya said angrily.

Sakura arrived at the door. “Hmmm. This is quite the situation…”

Soon, everyone had arrived at the scene, except Toko.

“A-are they all dead!? No…no waaaaayyyy!!!!!” Hifumi blubbered.

“No, they aren’t dead, you idiot.” Byakuya spat back. “If they were dead, the body discovery announcement would be playing right now.”

“Oh, that’s a relief. We need to get them to the infirmary, now!” Taka commanded.

“Hold it!” Byakuya commanded even louder. “I’m going to investigate this scene first. Believe it or not, one of the five people in here right now was the attacker behind the incident tonight. And I’ll be proving it to you all very soon.”

“What? How could they be the attacker? They’re the ones who got attacked!” Aoi whined.

“I don’t have the time or patience to explain such things to you.” Byakuya said irritatedly. “Now let me investigate the scene so we can hurry with taking them to the infirmary.”

Byakuya fished through the victims pockets without a shred of remorse, and came up with nothing. He checked each of their heads, and found each of them had a flat wound somewhere on their head. Yasuhiro in particular was bleeding from the side of his head.

Checking around the victims, he found that Leon’s right glove was soaked in blood, and that a pair of black contacts were lying on the ground next to him.

Byakuya inspected a little rope mechanism that had been set up to the side. The rope had been (presumably) cut by a pocket knife that lay on the ground a little ways away, and a heavy box filled with an absurd amount of paperclips was spilled on the ground nearby. Tied to the box was the rope that was part of the little pulley system that was set up.

Clearly, the attacker knocked themselves out using this rope mechanism by cutting the rope, throwing the knife away, then allowing themselves to be hit by the box of paper clips that would then fall on their head.

However, mysteriously, none of them had wounds on the top of their head. Maybe they tilted their head because they figured it would be obvious who the attacker was otherwise?

Byakuya also wanted to know where the dark suits had come from. Every one of them was wearing one, so there had to be a stock of them somewhere. He fished out his e-Handbook and confirmed with his picture of the storage inventory that there were indeed a total of 16 dark suits that could be used by anyone.

“Hey, someone. There should be a box filled with these dark suit sets over in that corner. Check and see how many there are. There should be eleven of them right now.” Byakuya ordered.

Sakura complied. “As you said, there are eleven of them.” She confirmed.

Next, Byakuya ruthlessly stripped them of their dark suits. They were all just wearing their normal clothes underneath. He fished through the pockets of their normal clothes and found only their e-Handbooks, except for Yasuhiro, who had his flashlight as well. “Hm.”

“Alright, I’m done here. You can take them all to the infirmary.” Byakuya said.

“Sure, but… can you maybe fucking help?” Mondo said. “In case you haven’t noticed, there are five of them.”

Byakuya let out a deep sigh. He didn’t want to have to carry around these plebs, but he didn’t have much of a choice in the matter. He assisted Mondo, Taka, and Sakura with carrying the injured to the infirmary.

While on the way there, he took note of the pool of blood he had slipped in. It didn’t seem to lead anywhere, but was smeared from when he stepped in it. Toko was out cold on the floor nearby.

“What’s wrong with her?” Byakuya asked.

“She fainted when she saw the blood…” Aoi explained. “I can take her to the infirmary as well, if you need me to.”

Suddenly, Toko sprang to her feet. Her tongue lolled out and her eyes were all over the place. “Uh… hee hee hee… whoops! Looks like I hit my head pretty hard there! Oh! Blood! Hee hee… Wow, what’s going on here?” She staggered around.

“A-are you alright?” 

“Get a hold of yourself, woman.” Byakuya commanded.

“Ooh! Alright, whatever you say, hot stuff!” Her eyes seemed to refocus, but her tongue was still wiggling around. “Say, what’s your name?”

Byakuya didn’t respond to her. Rather, he addressed Aoi. “I thought for a second that she might be alright, but I think you’d better take her to the infirmary after all.”

“Yeah…”

They went to the infirmary and laid out everyone on beds. Toko was still acting totally weird.

“Alright. Two of you stay here and take care of them. Toko included. There’s another place we have to visit.”

“Speaking of which…” Aoi asked. “Where are Makoto, Kyoko, and Chihiro?”

“We’re going to go get them right now. I hope that they’re still alive. It would be troublesome if any of them ended up dying.” Byakuya said nonchalantly.

“DYING?” Aoi gaped. “What do you mean, dying!?”

“I don’t want to waste my time explaining that to you. Now why don’t you and Hifumi stay here? You guys seem the most useless when it comes to an investigation. And make sure Toko doesn’t do anything crazy. She definitely doesn’t seem her usual self.” Byakuya said.

“Grrrr, you…! You can’t just leave us like-”

Byakuya left for classroom no.1, where they saw the ugly scene that had unfolded.

“Holy fucking shit! Damn girl, are you ok?” Mondo yelled at Kyoko’s unmoving form.

“Obviously not. But it appears that none of them are dead. The body discovery announcement isn’t playing.” Byakuya said simply.

“Fuck!” Mondo ran over to Chihiro. “Who the fuck would do this?”

“That’s what I intend to find out.” Byakuya said coldly. “So stop disturbing the scene.”

Mondo looked over at him. “Tch. Fuck. I still don’t like you, but I guess you’ve got the right idea.”

“I’m glad that even a brainless mass of muscle such as yourself is capable of some level of reasoning.”

“Now that was just fucking uncalled for.”

Byakuya set to investigating the scene. Kyoko was collapsed right next to the doorway, and was bleeding from the head. Additionally, there was blood stuck on the side of the doorframe. It seemed obvious what had happened to her.

Chihiro wasn’t bleeding, and nothing seemed to be too wrong with her, so Byakuya just left her alone after inspecting the wound.

Makoto was thankfully alright as well. Thankfully? Why was he thankful? Byakuya rationalized his concern by attributing it to the fact that Makoto had been quite useful indeed: if it wasn’t for the attacker, they may very well have escaped thanks to his plan.

Apart from the things he already knew about, nothing stuck out to him as odd. There weren’t any clues at all.

Finally, he walked over to the broken, half-melted bolt he had knocked off the plate. It had cooled at this point. He wasn’t sure why he wanted it, but he picked it up and placed it in his pocket. It would serve as a memento of how close they came to escape.

Monokuma walked out of one of the walls.

“Yo! You should look at your e-Handbook… I just edited the rules! So don’t go breaking any of them… I just told your infirmary friends, so you’ve got five minutes before the rules are active”

“No, we don’t. Considering half the class is knocked out, there’s no way that your little ‘half the class must be aware’ condition is fulfilled.”

“Actually, it is! Five minutes, Mr. Togami!” Monokuma backflipped and disappeared.

“Well, that basically just confirmed one of my suspicions… it’s not for certain, but everything points to a certain conclusion.” Byakuya smirked.

He checked the rules again.

Rule #5: Violence against the headmaster is prohibited, as is the destruction of the video cameras, video monitors, machine guns, and the metal plates and bolts that cover the windows.

“Alright. I don’t think we’re getting much else here. Let’s all reconvene in the infirmary and we can figure out who the attacker was.”

“And how do we do that?” Sakura asked.

“Simple. We debate. I’m sure you all have a story to tell me regarding why four of you happened to be outside of the dining hall. And I have a story to tell you about what happened in this classroom. So… we will discuss it in the infirmary.”

They picked up the unconscious students and moved them to the infirmary as well. After properly bandaging the bleeding student’s heads, Byakuya gathered a group of desks and arranged them in a circle.

“So.. what are you doing here?” Aoi asked.

“Creating a little debate circle. We’ll each stand at one of the desks, and discuss who we think the attacker is. Once we all agree on who it is, we then decide a proper punishment for them. That’s all.” Byakuya explained. “Now choose a desk.”

Everyone still conscious gathered around. Byakuya, Taka, Aoi, Sakura, Mondo, Hifumi, and Toko.

Byakuya chuckled. This would be interesting. “Alright… let’s begin our first and only mock trial.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yowza! Nobody died! But everyone got their head smashed in. What could it mean? Byakuya seems to know. Do you know?
> 
> Also, everyone's favorite prick is taking the leading role for the time being. How are you liking his perspective? He certainly has a no nonsense attitude. Makes things easier for me, as the writer, to be honest.
> 
> As always, thanks for reading my work! I hope you're enjoying it.
> 
> Edit: I forgot some stuff. So I added it. Whoops.


	8. Chapter 1: The Stomach Screams Louder than the Heart - Mock Trial

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Byakuya Togami leads a mock trial to reveal the one who attacked half the class.

“So… let’s start with something simple. I want you all to tell me what happened to you all from the instant the lights went out.” Byakuya said.

“I could be asking you the same!” Taka threw the question back at him.

“Indeed, you could. But I’m asking you to tell me first. So do it. Once you’re done, I’ll tell you my side of the story.”

“Fair enough.” Taka agreed. “Now… from the moment the lights went out, everyone got a little scared. But Sayaka and I worked to keep everyone calm, and made absolutely sure that nobody exited the room! I made absolutely sure!”

“But clearly, that’s not the case.” Byakuya injected. “There are several people who should have been in the cafeteria who were found in the storage room. Why is that?”

“W-well, you see… Sayaka got worried that you had been attacked by Monokuma, and so she got volunteers to come and help her search for the rest of you guys.” Taka explained.

“Tch. Foolishness. But no matter, what’s done is done. So… let me guess. Her search party consisted of herself, Leon, Celeste, and Junko?”

“Yes. That is the case.” Taka confirmed. “Celeste said she saw trouble befalling the five of you, so she wanted to join. I do not know why Leon insisted on joining, nor do I know why Junko joined in either… but regardless, they did!”

“So the rest of you just stayed in the cafeteria?”

“Of course!” Taka nodded vigorously.

“Yes… we can all confirm that we were in the cafeteria the entire time while the lights were out.” Sakura added.

“And I’m going to assume that when the lights came back on, you left the cafeteria, and eventually found me, in the storage room.” Byakuya said.

“That is correct.” Sakura said.

“Good. Now allow me to explain what we were doing in that classroom, and what ended up happening.”

“First, our plan was to, as you saw, use hot rods to melt the bolts that held up one of the window plates, and escape through the window. Yasuhiro’s job was to melt the machine gun and bring the rest of you to the classroom.” Byakuya said.

“After he left to get the rest of you, we never heard back from him. And he never showed up at the cafeteria, so we can assume that either he was the attacker… or he was attacked.”

“Sensing that something was wrong, I left the classroom to search for Yasuhiro as well, but little did I know, the attacker at that point had snuck past classroom no.1. As I went to the dorm building, the attacker slipped into the classroom behind me, and attacked the three who were in there. I returned to try to stop the attacker, but they escaped. I chased them all the way to the storage room, where I found those five, knocked out.”

Hifumi pounded his fist. “Or, you were the one who attacked the three in the classroom, and you simply ran into the storage room, pretending to chase an attacker that never existed!”

“Interesting theory. But if I really am the attacker, explain how I attacked Yasuhiro.”

“Simple. You attacked him in the classroom along with the rest, then carried him to the storage room to make it look as though he was attacked _after_ he had left to find us!”

“So, your theory is that Yasuhiro was attacked in the classroom, then carried to the storage room? Too bad that I have some proof to refute that.”

Hifumi harrumphed. “Then show me!”

“Do you remember the pool of blood that was out in the middle of the dorm building?”

“Yes… I remember it.”

“Now, tell me again, which of the victims bled?”

“Kyoko and Yasuhiro…”

“And how many pools of blood have we found in total, and where?”

“We’ve found two. One at the classroom, and one in the dorm building.”

“Excellent. As you can see, the existence of a pool of blood in the dorm building doesn’t make sense unless Yasuhiro was attacked in the dorm building.”

“Well, then… what if you attacked him in a way that didn’t draw blood in the classroom, then drew blood afterwards in the dorm building! That would work!”

“Did you even look at his injury? There’s clearly only one. He was hit once, and that’s when blood was drawn. Which means he was attacked in the dorm building, which means that I couldn’t be the attacker.” Byakuya spat. He had had enough of these wild accusations.

“Yeah… I looked at it myself and there was only one.” Aoi confirmed.

“Tch…!” Hifumi jiggled furiously. “Well… you could still be the attacker! You would just have to go after Yasuhiro, attack him in the dorm building, move him to the storage room, and then go back and attack the other three! And at some point in the middle, you attacked the rest as well!”

“Impossible. Makoto, Kyoko, and Chihiro would have noticed me leaving and would not have let me.”

“Then you attacked the three of them first, then Yasuhiro, and then the others!”

Byakuya sighed deeply. “I suppose that’s all possible. But there’s nothing that proves your story true. How about we stick to the facts before throwing out accusations?”

“Agreed.” Sakura said. “Now, there was something in there that bothered me…”

“What’s that, Sakura?” Aoi asked.

“There was talk of Yasuhiro being attacked in the dorm building, then being transported to the storage room… but if he was bleeding, shouldn't there be a trail of blood? I saw nothing of the sort.”

“I can explain that as well.” Byakuya said confidently. “I noticed that one of Leon’s gloves was soaked in blood… if that glove was used to stop the open flow of blood, then he could be carried without a trail.”

“So that settles it! Leon is the attacker!” Aoi concluded.

“Damn that guy… attackin’ girls. That motherfucker is really asking for it!” Mondo raged.

“No, Leon isn’t necessarily the attacker.” Byakuya said calmly. “You see, the attacker could have simply swapped gloves with Leon. The bloody glove is hardly proof of his guilt. Then again, he is an idiot enough to not notice something so damning, so he could still be the culprit.”

“Oohhh, I didn’t even think of that. You’re pretty clever, Byakuya!” Aoi said.

“Hey, hey, I’ve been listening to this for a while, and it’s pretty damn interesting, but can someone fill me in on where we are and why we’re doing this?” Toko suddenly cut in.

“H-huh?” Taka stuttered. “What do you mean, ‘where are we’? Did you lose your memory or something?”

“What? Don’t tell me Toko hasn’t told you guys about little ol’ me?” Toko giggled. 

Byakuya was beginning to get the picture now…

“What do you mean, ‘Toko hasn’t told you’? You’re Toko! So if there’s something you want to tell us, then tell us!” Aoi said.

“I’m not Toko. I’m… COLONEL SHOU!” She cackled. “Nice to meet you all, finally! Oh, but you can just call me ‘Colonel’.”

“What? Toko, what is the meaning of this?” Taka demanded.

“Multi personalities.” Byakuya said simply. “This must be what makes her the Ultimate Soldier… after all, Toko fainted after seeing blood… no Ultimate Soldier would react in that way. It stands to reason that her other personality, this ‘Colonel Shou’, is the true Ultimate Soldier. Toko Fukawa, on the other hand, is a helplessly normal girl.”

“Got it in one! Damn, hottie’s got a brain too!” She continued laughing. “But seriously, I’m pretty upset that Toko never told you all about me! Sure, I’m a liiiiiiiiiittttle bit crazy, but it’s not like I’m a serial killer or anything! Nyahahahahahahaha!!!!”

“We’ll fill you on the specifics later. All you need to know for now is that we’re trying to find the one who attacked… everyone here.” Byakuya gestured to all the occupied beds around him.

“Alriiiigggghhttttt, got it Mr. Hunk!”

“Where were we again?” Taka asked.

“We were talking about the glove, and why Leon wasn’t necessarily the culprit.” Sakura recounted. “But if we’re on that topic, I must ask… how did the culprit manage to escape, given that you chased them into the storage room? If you cannot answer this question to our satisfaction… I’m afraid that the only answer must be that you, Byakuya, are the culprit.”

“I understand that perfectly well.” Byakuya was undeterred. “They simply camouflaged themselves among the victims by preemptively dressing the victims in the same attire as them, and then knocking themselves out while in the storage room.”

“Knocking themselves out? Are they crazy? How would that even work?” Aoi held her head in her hands.

“I found remnants of a rope system that would drop a box filled with paperclips on whoever cut the rope. I saw the box, the cut rope, the pocket knife, even the necessary hook on the ceiling.”

“Oh… well, I didn’t really look too hard, but I’ll take your word for it.”

“I saw it.” Mondo said. “It’s just as he described. Whoever was brave enough to do that to themselves is a complete fucking maverick though.”

“That is cleared up, but there are more things that are bothering me about this incident. For example… who out of the suspects is even strong enough to knock everyone else out?” Sakura brought up. It was a good question.

“It does seem unlikely that anyone but Leon or Yasuhiro could be strong enough…” Aoi said.

“Don’t forget Byakuya! He could do it!” Hifumi jabbed a finger at him.

“I’m afraid we can’t just make assumptions. Any of them could secretly be rather strong. And to be honest, neither Leon nor Yasuhiro strike me as very strong either.” Byakuya said. “All I know is that the culprit is shorter than me.”

“Dude, that’s not really saying anything, since all of them are shorter than you.” Mondo said.

“Hm. So they are.” Byakuya smiled smugly. “But anyways, we can cross Yasuhiro off the list of potential culprits, because we know he got attacked in the dorm building due to the pool of blood.”

“Another thing that was bothering me.” Sakura said. “The culprit… how did they see?”

“It may have been dark, but it wasn’t that dark.” Aoi responded. “They could probably see alright.”

“Actually, I believe this is something worth discussing. The culprit didn’t need to be incredibly skilled to knock everyone out with their bare hands if they had the advantage of sight.” Byakuya explained. “And there’s something that would allow them to see.”

“Night vision goggles!” Taka yelled.

“No, but close. Night vision contacts.”

“N-night vision contacts!?” Shou screamed. “That’s the kinda shit only I get access to, you know, because of my job!”

“Yeah, Byakuya, there’s no way they had night vision contacts. Those are super high tech or whatever. They wouldn’t just be lying around.” Aoi said.

“But they were. They were right there, on the ground, next to the bodies. I have them right here.” Byakuya took out the contacts and held them up for everyone to see.

“Hand’em here, hot stuff!” Shou snatched the contacts and put one of them in, shutting the other eye. “Whewee! This is the bone fide article! I wonder how the attacker got their hands on these!” She took it back out.

“That’s the perfect thing to discuss next…” Byakuya said ominously. “But first, does anyone find it strange that nobody is dead?”

“Huh?” Aoi’s mouth hung open.

“Actually… I do find it strange.” Sakura admitted. “But I am not sure why.”

“Well, put yourself in the attacker’s perspective. Why did they decide to attack us?”

Hifumi answered. “Because they… wanted to prevent us from escaping…? But that makes no sense… it would make more sense if they attacked us to try to escape.”

“Wow. Surprisingly, your shriveled up, pea of a brain is capable of intelligent thought. Yes, if someone died, it would make sense. Let’s say that someone thought that maybe Makoto’s escape plan was a trap, or they thought that the plan would not work. In that case, they would try to kill someone so they alone could escape. However, in the case where nobody was killed deliberately… well, then the culprit doesn’t intend to escape. Either that, or they don’t want to be found out and executed. But if both of those facts are true, that they do not wish to escape or be put on trial, the only reasonable explanation is…”

“They are a traitor, working with Monokuma to undermine us.”

The group stood in silence as they contemplated this.

“This is why finding the attacker is so essential. When we find the attacker, we find the traitor.” Byakuya said. “And with that in mind, it explains where the contacts came from: they came from Monokuma.”

“I see…” Taka said. “That is unforgivable! Whoever the traitor is, I will not suffer them any longer!”

“Ugh, but now what? Do we have any ideas of how we can figure out who the attacker is?” Aoi scratched her head. “I can’t think of anything.”

“Let’s not focus on who the attacker is… let’s flip things around. If we find the traitor, we find the attacker. Out of the possible suspects, which one do you think is a traitor? Hmm?”

“Given that you brought up the whole idea of a traitor, I doubt that it’s you…” Sakura said.

“So we’re stuck with Leon, Sayaka, Celeste, and Junko as suspects.” Taka summarized.

“Wait! Why not Yasuhiro?” Hifumi argued.

“We already proved he couldn’t be the attacker.” Taka shot back. “It’s because we found his blood in the dorm building, and then his body was moved.”

“Speaking of Yasuhiro, though, I wonder how he managed to turn off the light?” Byakuya wondered aloud. “Monokuma! Get in here. I want to confirm something with you.”

Monokuma dropped down into the ring of desks. “Hey, ask me anything other than the identity of the traitor.”

“So there _is_ a traitor!” Aoi yelled.

“Aww, you got me. Yeah, there’s a traitor. But man, they’re so utterly incompetent! There were a million other better ways to stop you guys from escaping, but they went on a violent rampage and beat everyone up instead! What an idiooootttttt!”

“Enough of that.” Byakuya commanded. “Tell me, did Yasuhiro ask you for assistance when it came to turning off the lights?”

“Hmmmmmmmmm…? Did you say something…?” Monokuma played dumb.

“That reaction is so fucking obvious man.” Mondo said annoyedly. “So he really did ask you for help?”

“That’s right! He said that if I turned off the lights for him, he’d go and kill someone, but he didn’t! I got tricked! That wily man, he’s a handful alright! Anyways, if that’s all you wanted to ask, I’ll be off!” Monokuma zipped away.

“Huh. Well, seems Yasuhiro isn’t above lying to get his way.” Aoi said.

“Not a big fan of the whole lying thing, but you can’t deny that he got shit done.” Mondo nodded in approval.

“Well, with that out of the way, I want you all to recall anything strange that any one of our suspects might have done over the past two days.” Byakuya said. “Anything at all. Whether it be wandering off, sudden changes in demeanor, anything. Also, spending a lot of time alone in their room can be suspicious, since they’d be talking with Monokuma.”

“I really don’t think it could be Sayaka. I mean, she’s been so nice to us all this time and I can’t really think of a single time she wasn’t with someone else. She wouldn’t have any time for strategy meetings with Monokuma.” Aoi said.

“She could just talk with Monokuma late at night in her room. That doesn’t mean anything.” Byakuya rolled his eyes.

“Celeste… she’s definitely weird, and she was advocating for us to just get used to life imprisoned here and stop trying to escape or any of that. Maybe it’s her?”

“Maybe… we’re pulling on strings here.” Sakura said.

“Hold on…” Byakuya held his hand up. “I think I have a good method for smoking out the traitor. With any luck, we can catch them.”

“Really? What’s your plan?” Mondo prompted.

“We simply check to see if someone in this room has secretly been awake for a while… because if they are, the only reason they’d ever stay quiet about it is because they are the traitor. Oh, and by the way, don’t pretend to wake up all of the sudden. If you do, I will peg you as the traitor immediately.”

Just then, Leon yawned loudly and sat up. “Ugh… what the hell..?”

“The fuck? It was Leon!” Mondo jumped on him and throttled him. “Damn, you, you fucking-”

“OHO? What’s this!? Looks like this bad girl is pretending to be asleep!” Colonel Shou said from one of the other beds.

Mondo let go of Leon. Leon rubbed his throat. “I don’t know what your fucking problem is, dude, but I don’t take kindly to being attacked the instant I wake up.”

“Oi, what’s this bitch’s name?” Shou asked, pointing to the prone girl.

Junko lunged upwards from the bed and grabbed Shou by the throat, trying to pull her down and hold her hostage, but Shou grabbed Junko’s arms and flipped her over and out of the bed, slamming her onto the ground.

“Sweetie, that was cute and all, but I’m the Ultimate fucking Soldier. Don’t mess with the colonel.” Shou literally spat in her face.

“God fucking damn it!” Junko screamed at her. She struggled to get up, but Shou held her down. “Let me go, you punk! Gah!”

“Amazing. Leon waking up with that timing almost saved you… but looks like you stood no chance against a psychopathic soldier.” Byakuya commented. “You say that you’re the Ultimate Programmer, but you’re quite strong, aren’t you? Surprising.”

“Yeah this bitch is strong.” Shou said. “I’ve actually got to put in quite a bit of effort in restraining her.”

Monokuma popped in. “Oh, boo hoo. My traitor got found ouuutttt… well too fucking bad for you, Junko, because you were a shit subordinate anyways! And since I don’t really need you anymore…”

“W-what?” Junko gasped. “N-no, you can’t do this to me! I’m-” Monokuma shoved a paw in her mouth.

“Hey, hey! I don’t know what you were going to say there, but you can’t go spilling my secrets! Anyways, I’m firing you! Since, you know, you almost let the students get away, and also, you handled that situation like complete shit! Seriously? Running around, grabbing people by the heads and smashing them? That was the best you could think of? Not to mention you didn’t even have the guts to kill anyone. I might have even faked your execution to let you survive if you killed someone and got caught. But noooooooooo. You’re just a coward! So you get to have a taste of what you deserve!”

Everyone just stood in silence and watched Monokuma rant.

“You! Toko or Colonel Shou or whoever you are, let go of my minion so I can punish them!”

“Why should I?” She stuck out her tongue.

“Because I’ll turn you into confetti if you don’t!” Monokuma produced wolverine claws from his paw.

“Oh. Well, ok.” The colonel reluctantly let go of Junko.

“Oh boy, I’ve been waiting for this part!” Monokuma said cheerily. “I’ve always wanted to do this… SPEAR OF GUNGNIR! Strike down my idiot minion!”

Everyone stared in complete shock as a rain of spikes shot from the ceiling, swiftly impaling Junko from every direction. They pierced her legs, then her arms and hands and feet and stomach and chest and finally, after all was said and done, a final spear dropped from the sky and impaled her right through the throat. Her eyes still hung open, lifeless, as blood slowly pooled near her chin.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!” Aoi let out an ear wrenching scream.

“WHAT THE FUCK!? WHAT THE FUCK!? WHAT THE FUCK!?” Mondo kept yelling.

Hifumi had fainted dead away at the sight.

“No… no… this can’t be… Monokuma, you monster! She may not have been our friend, but that was a human being! How can you do something like this!?” Taka pointed at the blood covered bear.

“Hey, I’m just preparing you guys for what’s to come! You guys are gonna start killing each other sooner or later… so might as well give you guys a live trial run of the experience, so you don’t freak out too much once the real thing happens! You should be thanking me!”

“Tch. Deplorable.” Was all Byakuya could say. He was holding it together much better than anyone else, but even he was shaken. To be impaled with spikes like that… it was a gruesome way to go, indeed.

“What’s with all the noise…?” Sayaka opened her eyes, and proceeded to scream much like Aoi did.

“Ugh. Clean that up, Monokuma. We don’t need anyone else waking up and seeing this, and making another racket.” Byakuya said coldly.

“Someone was killed! And all you care about is not having to listen to us scream!?” Aoi yelled through sobs. “You- I can’t believe you!”

“Shit, man! I’ve seen some pretty yucky deaths in my time but this one definitely takes the cake!” Shou said. “But yeah, I gotta agree with hottie over here. I care about my eardrums, and her corpse ain’t exactly very decorative.”

“You’re insane!” Aoi shouted.

“Glad you noticed!” Shou said happily.

“Eh, it takes time to clean these things up. I agree that trash shouldn’t just be lying around… but the garbage truck needs space to operate! So shoo! Shoo! And take all your sleeping beauties with you! I’ll be closing this room until I’m done cleaning! So get out!” Monokuma forcibly shoved them out.

“I-I don’t even understand what’s going on…” Sayaka cried.

“Me too, dude. I wake up, apparently Junko is a traitor? And then she’s killed right in front of me? I… am I still dreaming?” Leon mumbled.

“Unfortunately, I’m afraid not… this is reality.” Sakura said solemnly. “This resolution… was not quite what I expected.”

“I can’t believe Monokuma just… killed her. Weren’t they allies? Friends?” Taka was crying now too. “I just can’t accept that Monokuma would throw away his allies like they’re nothing…”

Byakuya had had enough. If they wanted to go around in circles, crying about what had just happened and feeling sorry for themselves for being there to witness it, they could do that. But Byakuya was going to act.

First though, he needed a shower and a change of clothes though. Junko’s execution had gotten him totally splattered.

Toko… no, Colonel Shou trailed behind him. She was quite used to death, and crazy to boot, so she probably didn’t mind the fact that Junko had died.

Byakuya gave it some thought. In reality, wasn’t this for the best, though? They didn’t have to do anything about the traitor, because Monokuma did it for them. And with the traitor out of the way, any new escape attempts would go cleanly. Of course, the new rule meant they couldn’t escape the way they intended to last time, but hopefully Makoto would think of something new. His mind seemed to be an endless font of crazy, inventive ideas. If there was anyone Byakuya could trust to find a way to escape, it would be him.

Huh. Since when did Byakuya count on others for anything? Makoto was beginning to make an impression on him...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... yeah. Someone ended up dead after all. Monokuma had no trepidations about selling out their mole! What a meanie.  
> But really, at this point, not much is stopping them from making another escape plan and trying it out. Makoto just has to come up with another idea.
> 
> Unless...?
> 
> As always, thanks for reading, and I hope you're enjoying it so far!


	9. Chapter 1: The Stomach Screams Louder than the Heart - Daily Life Part 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Makoto gets really upset, to put it mildly.

Makoto woke up feeling like complete garbage.

His head was pounding and his abs and biceps felt like they were composed of 99% lactic acid. A result of his training with Mondo two days prior. Opting not to sit up, he instead rolled off the bed to save his abs the pain. He thoughtlessly pushed open the door to his room and walked to the cafeteria to join everyone for breakfast.

And then it struck him. He was still stuck here. His escape plan had failed.

Oblivious to his surroundings, he sat down somewhere.

“Hey, Makoto, are you doing alright?”

Makoto couldn’t tell who was talking to him.

“Y-you were pretty out of it yesterday… are you feeling better today?”

Makoto whipped around and growled. He wasn’t in the mood for talking.

But Chihiro wouldn’t go away. “Um, I could… take a look at your head wound, if it’s hurting…”

Makoto grabbed his head. He was wounded? His head was wrapped in bandages. Why? How did this happen? He tore away at them frantically. His head hurt. It itched. He felt something wet dripping down his forehead.

Blood.

Then he saw his hands. His fingers were raw and covered in scratches, and his palms had gashes in them.

“Wh-what’s this?” He stuttered. “Heh… heh heh… why am I all bloody?”

“D-don’t you remember? You went totally ballistic yesterday!” Aoi shouted from somewhere.

“Ballistic? Ha ha ha…” He laughed somewhat insanely. “I don’t remember a thing…” He turned towards Aoi's voice and saw the fearful look in her eyes. Looking around some more, he saw that most of the people here were staring at him fearfully.

“W-wait, guys, what’s wrong?” Makoto was starting to really freak out now. “Did I do something!? And- and-! Where’s Junko?”

“Oh yes, we never told you about what happened to her, did we?” Byakuya said. He seemed to be one of the only ones who was calm. “But… she can come later. First, we should tell you what you did. After all, you seem to have forgotten.”

Celeste spoke up. “You see, upon awakening, you tried to escape again. You went back to the window plate, tugged at it, punched it, slammed chairs into it... even rammed your head against it. And you wouldn’t stop screaming either. It was quite frightful to behold. Even the combined efforts of Mondo and Sakura could barely hold you down.”

“I did what?”

“Eventually, you ran out of energy and fell asleep again… anyways, if you want to see the evidence of your rampage, it’s all there in the classroom.”

Makoto dashed out of the room.

“Makoto, wait!”

He arrived at what remained of classroom no.1. The desks and chairs were strewn everywhere, many of them splintered and broken. Flecks of blood covered the floor. But most notably… there was a huge dent in the center of the window plate they had been trying to remove, and blood covered it from head to toe. Looking closer at the boltless corner, he saw the results of his tugging. Bits of skin that had been scraped from his hands covered the corner.

“Heh heh heh heh… AHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!” Makoto doubled over and started scratching at his head injury. “I guess escape really is impossible, huh? HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!”

“Get a fuckin’ hold of yourself!” Mondo grabbed him from behind.

“GET YOUR HANDS OFF OF ME!” Makoto slapped him away. “DON’T TOUCH ME!”

“Makoto! What’s wrong with you?” Chihiro sobbed.

“What’s wrong me with _me?_ What’s wrong with you? Our one and only chance…” His voice cracked. “It’s _gone!_ Now there’s no escape, and we’re stuck with only two options… kill, or be killed! Don’t you understand!? It’s all over! Ha ha ha ha ha…”

“No! It’s not over! The rules might have changed so we can’t escape like this anymore, but we can still try a different method! We can’t give up after just one try!” Sayaka shouted back.

“I’m afraid it is over.” Monkuma joined the conversation in an uncharacteristically chilling manner. “I’m sure you all noticed that the kitchen was completely devoid of food?”

“Uh…”

“Each time you try something out of hand, like trying to escape, or trying to uncover the secret parts of my game… I’ll punish you all. I can’t directly punish individuals, since I wouldn’t be abiding by my rules, but nothing is stopping me from increasing the severity of my motives… So unless you want the rest of your pitiful lives to be living hell, I’d suggest you’d stop your rebellion and submit to the truth: The only way to escape is to _kill._ ”

The temperature seemed to drop several degrees.

“Of course, once one of you does submit to the motive and decides to kill, I’ll give you all your food back! So chop chop! Better get killing, or you’ll all be skin and bones in no time!” Monokuma said cheerily. “Now seeya!”

Taka broke the ensuing silence. “That won’t work on us! Now that there’s no more food to be lost, there’s no way you can make this motive any harsher! We should just try to escape anyways.”

Monokuma dropped back in. “Fine, fine, just to reassure you that I can, in fact, make this motive worse, I could lock you out of your rooms to prevent you from sleeping, or turn up the air conditioner to turn the building into the arctic, or I could even cut the water supply so you can’t drink, shower, or even flush the toilet! Or all of them at once! And there’s always torture. Seriously, as long as I’m punishing you all equally, I can do anything I like! It’s not against the rules! So that’s enough defiance. Play my game, or live a life worse than death.” Monokuma vanished once more.

This time nobody had any rebuttals.

“See?” Makoto said coldly. “Told you so.”

Having sobered up from his little crazy stint, Makoto left the classroom and headed directly to his room.

Sayaka and Chihiro ran after him. “Makoto, wait!”

“Why should I? Do you have anything helpful to say? If not, I’d like to be alone now, please.”

He waited a second, but they hadn’t thought up a proper response during that time. 

“Thought so.” He concluded, and slammed the door shut.

He spent the rest of the day in his room, doing nothing at all.

\--------------------------

Some amount of days had passed. It was probably less than a week, but Makoto had already lost track of the days. He simply sat in an almost vegetative state, doing nothing but conserving his energy. He had lost control of himself and eaten his breads that he had kept on himself from the snack box, meaning that he truly had no food at this point. The only time he moved was to drink water and use the restroom. Otherwise, the only things he did were sleep and think.

He didn’t want to admit it, but he was lonely. Extremely lonely. Not too long after he had quarantined himself, he regretted it. He wanted to see his friends. And not just Chihiro, Yasuhiro, Kyoko, and the rest. His friends from outside of the school. His family. But he was also embarrassed and ashamed. He couldn’t face any of them after what he had done.

Mostly, though, he was afraid. The days just after his quarantine, he heard knocks on his door, as well as the doorbell, many many times. He knew that in all likelihood, it was just one of his friends, wanting to talk to him, to get him to leave his room. But there was a chance. A tiny, miniscule chance that the person out there wanted to kill him. And as the possibility existed, Makoto could not summon the courage to open that door. He didn’t want to die.

But was that true? It wasn’t death he feared, but it was the pain that came with it. He didn’t want to feel that pain. It was too terrifying. And as he thought more and more, Makoto came up with an answer. An answer that could save everyone.

Nobody had knocked for at least a while. Maybe a full day. Maybe two. Makoto didn’t know. But he was confident that nobody was out or about at this time. The clock read 9:00 PM. If he was going to have the time to pull his plan off, he’d probably have to move now.

Makoto tried moving, but it wasn’t easy, walking more than ten steps. His haggard body probably weighed only 70% of his original weight. But despite this, it felt like lead. He slowly opened his door. Nobody was in the hallway. So far so good.

He trudged slowly to the cafeteria. Nobody in there either. He entered the kitchen and grabbed one of the knives. Perfect. Now he’d just have to…

_*splish*_

Makoto looked down. He was stepping in blood. No way. His eyes slowly traced to the source of the blood, and settled on the corpse of **Hifumi Yamada, the Ultimate Affluent Progeny,** lying dead in the doorway of the pantry. A huge gash was placed right between his eyes, running from his forehead all the way down into his nose, which was split cleanly in half.

Makoto dropped the knife and fell on his butt. He wanted to throw up, but had nothing to throw up. He wanted to scream, but his mouth was too dry and his lungs were too weak. We wanted to stand up and run and find someone, but his legs would not move.

He sat there in shock for what must have been at least twenty minutes.

Finally, he got back to his feet. He had to tell someone. No, he had to tell everyone. He stumbled from the kitchen and started ringing every single doorbell. If he was right, almost everyone was cooped up in their room.

Taka, Sayaka, and Mondo opened their doors.

“Makoto…? You’re here? What’s-”

“No time to explain, come with me to the kitchen.” Makoto croaked out. It was the first time he had spoken in days.

The four half ran half staggered to the kitchen.

_♪Ding Dong Bing Bong♪_

“A body has been discovered! Everyone, please report to the kitchen!”

“No… no…” Sayaka whispered, unable to muster the energy to scream.

“You gotta be shittin’ me…” Even Mondo wasn’t yelling.

“This… this will not stand.” Taka said. “Who would ever do this?”

That’s what Makoto wanted to know. But he did already have a sneaking suspicion. He could only hope that he was right.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah, Hifumi ended up dying. I was kind of hesitant to kill him off since he seemed like an obvious choice: the motive is food related and he's not a very likable person. But in the end, I decided that simple is best. Don't throw twists just for the sake of twists. Then again, some of you might have been expecting him more as a killer, not a victim, so there's that.
> 
> Regardless, I'm kinda iffy about this chapter, mostly because I don't know if I handled the passage of a long period of time properly. What did you guys think about that? Was it ok?
> 
> Also, Makoto had a plan of some sort. What was he going to do? Regardless though, it's going to have to be canceled because a body showed up.
> 
> As always, thank you for reading my work, and I hope you're enjoying it so far!


	10. Chapter 1: The Stomach Screams Louder than the Heart - Investigation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The investigation is underway!

As soon as all of the students were gathered in the kitchen, Monokuma arrived.

“Heyo, heyo! Looks like one of you went and did it! I’m proud of you! Took you a bit, but you did it! Anyways, as a reward, take these!” Monokuma produced a basket full of food. “Eat up so you can regain your concentration for the trial!”

“Trial?” Aoi asked

“Wow, do you know how to read? You read the rules, right? When someone is killed, we have a trial to find out whodunnit! If you manage to guess the right person, you all get to live! If not, then, well, you all die.” Monokuma explained.

Hardly anyone was listening at this point, as they were all ravenously digging into the food basket. A full half minute of straight eating later, Leon finally spoke up.

“You’ve told us what we need to know, so why are you still here? Get out of here!”

“Oh… I was going to help you, but given that I’m so unappreciated here, I think I’ll just leave… awwwww, my students hate me, that makes me saaaaddddd…” The bear mimed wiping a tear away from its red eye.

“Help? What do you mean by help?” Celeste asked, undeterred by Monokuma’s dramatics.

“So you want my help after all? Wow, that makes me so happy! Here, take this.” Monokuma produced thirteen pads, similar to the e-Handbooks, and passed them out amongst the students.

“This is the Monokuma File! It has all sorts of useful information pertaining to the victim. After all, nobody here is an expert, so-”

“Rigor mortis has set in, but the body is still slightly warm. I’d say he died somewhere from two to four hours ago.” Yasuhiro stood up from the body. “Hey, someone come over here and give me a hand. I’ll be needing someone to explain my deductions to.” He reached inside his coat for something, but came out with nothing. He sighed and returned to the body.

“Oh, I forgot, I guess you guys do have an expert here, which means that you won’t be needing-”

“I’ve already read it. Don’t bother trying to take it back.” Byakuya said. “Cause of death: Struck in the head with a bladed weapon. No other injuries. Also, there were no foreign substances found in his body either. Apart from that, the file tells us who the victim is and where they were found, but that’s not very useful.”

“Phooey, you guys are already on top of it. I wanted to see you panic! Well, have fun investigating. I’ll tell you guys when you’re out of time.” Monokuma pranced away.

“Alright. I’ll need some of you guys to help me out with investigating. Find someone to pair up with. Oh, but Makoto, you’re with me.” Yasuhiro commanded. He held up his fingers near his mouth as if he had a cigarette between them, but of course, there was no cigarette. He grumbled and put his hand back in his pocket.

“Ok, but why though?” Makoto asked.

“Because I know that you’ll be the perfect Watson. Now have you all found your pairs?”

Everyone was paired up, except for Aoi, Sakura, and Mondo, who were in a group of three.

“Alright, Taka, Sayaka, go to the gym. In the room before the gym proper, there should be a display case. Go there and find out if anything is conspicuously missing. Chihiro, Kyoko, go to the storage room and look for signs of someone having taken string, duct tape, superglue, binder rings, and a black marker. Byakuya, Toko-”

“I’m not Toko! I’m the COLONEL!”

“Hrnnngh, Colonel. Fine. Whatever your name is, you two go to the garbage room. Makoto, give them the key. See if the incinerator has been used. Sakura, Aoi, Mondo, go and search all of the other rooms in the school building. Don’t split up, and make sure to search through the trash cans as well. Report anything unusual. Whoever is left, stick together and search the laundry room and bathhouse for unusual things. Makoto and I will stay here and investigate the main scene. Alright, guys, let’s get moving. We don’t know how much time we have left.”

Everyone promptly split.

“Makoto, come take a look at this with me. I’m pretty sure that I know how Hifumi got killed, but I want your perspective.” Yasuhiro gestured for him to come over.

Makoto queasily stepped over Hifumi’s corpse and into the pantry. Looking at the top of the doorframe from the inside, Makoto saw what was pretty obviously the trap devised to kill Hifumi. An axe hung from the doorframe, and it was covered in blood.

“Looks like a trap. I see why you asked Chihiro and Kyoko to go and find all those things… since they were all used here.” Makoto noted.

“Glad you agreed with me. For now, let’s just document it all and take pictures. We can explain how it properly works during the trial.” Yasuhiro took out his e-Handbook and started taking pictures.

“The biggest question is this: when was the trap set up?” Makoto wondered. “You know, I can’t really say anything about it, since I kind of stayed in my room the entire time, so I don’t know who was visiting the pantry or anything.”

“We can discuss that in the trial.” Yasuhiro said plainly. “For now, let’s just focus on this evidence.”

The evidence was such:  
(Hopefully you can see this image, I've never done this before)

(May not be completely to scale, my ability to draw proportions is definitely not perfect)

“Alright, got it all noted down.” Yasuhiro started scrounging through the rest of the pantry. “You go search the kitchen. There should be a knife missing, since it’s right here, taped to the door.”

Makoto looked at the knives, and indeed, one was missing. Actually, two, since he had taken one himself, and had dropped it on the ground. He decided to just put it back though, best not to leave something that dangerous around. He looked around the counter top, the drawers, the cabinets, in the sink, in the stove even, but nothing turned up. He found in the trash the remains of a tube of super glue, some string, a pair of scissors, and a slightly used roll of duct tape. Looks like the killer didn’t bother cleaning up very thoroughly. Not that it matters, since none of it reveals their identity.

“I found these in the trash.” Makoto showed the items to Yasuhiro.

“Hmm. Well, that makes sense. Don’t know how much it really helps us though.” He commented. “Well, let’s just take them with us, they might be useful in the trial.”

Makoto pocketed the items and kept searching, but there was still nothing even unusual other than the items in the trash.

Yasuhiro came back out of the pantry. “There’s nothing in there. At all.”

“Nothing out here either.”

“Alright, enough putting it off, let’s look at the body.”

“Uh, do we have to?” Makoto winced. “We already have the file that says how he died, so…”

“We don’t know if we’ll find clues or not until we investigate, and we need to do so thoroughly, otherwise, we might miss stuff. It’s gotta be thorough.” Yasuhiro started rifling through Hifumi’s pockets.

He came out with his e-Handbook and some empty wrappers. “Huh. Weird, there’s no note or anything. Makoto, did you see a note anywhere?”

“A note? No, why?”

“Well, I figured that Hifumi came to the pantry for a reason. I mean, there’s no point in going to the pantry right now. So there must have been a note telling him to meet up here, or maybe that there was food here or something like that, in order to lure him into the trap.” Yasuhiro reasoned.

“Huh. Maybe.” Makoto considered the idea of a note, but felt that a note wasn’t exactly necessary in this particular case… hopefully.

“Alright. We need to gather everyone back up. Hopefully they’re done searching themselves. We have to go and search each and every dorm room if we’re going to have any hope of clearing this trial.” Yasuhiro stood back up.

“What about his injury and… stuff?” Makoto asked. “Don’t you need to investigate that?”

“Already did. It matches up with the axe alright.” Yasuhiro stated. “Now let’s move, we have no time to waste.”

He and Makoto went back out to the hall where they found Byakuya and the Colonel.

“Hey, what’d you find?” Makoto asked.

“I’d say that I’ll tell you later, but the fact is that we found nothing. Which is quite simple to tell.” Byakuya said coolly.

“So it’s safe to say the culprit did not bother using the incinerator… makes sense, since they either couldn’t, or the culprit is you, Makoto, and you figured that using the incinerator would be painting a huge red X on your back.” Yasuhiro said.

Makoto decided it would be better to ignore the comment about him possibly being the culprit. Save any arguing for the trial.

“Yo, weed man. What’s the next move?” Shou asked.

Yasuhiro flinched. “M-me?” He was definitely shaken by being called weed man.

“Yup, weed man. You just stink of weeeeeed. You look like it too! Some of the soldiers in the force resorted to it to cope… not me though!” The Colonel laughed maniacally.

“Just ignore her…” Makoto said. “But we were going to search people’s personal rooms next.”

Monokuma plopped down in front of them. “I heard you, I heard you! Since this is an investigation and all, I’ll unlock all of those rooms for you! Happy hunting!” Monokuma teleported away.

Sure enough, the rooms were all unlocked.

“Alright. Let’s do a quick search. We stay in our pairs, just in case anyone is trying to disturb the crime scene. We also don’t investigate our own rooms.” Yasuhiro ordered.

They combed through the rooms, but nothing was totally out of the ordinary, and nothing incriminating was found in any of the trash cans. Just normal stuff, like clothes, cosmetics, toiletries, and workout gear. Makoto still took note of everything that was found in the rooms, but he doubted any of it would be useful.

The four regrouped.

“We found… nada!” Colonel Shou laughed. “Looks like you guys didn't find anything either, from the looks on your faces! Now that’s just tragic!”

And with that, the PA system sounded.

“And time’s up, folks! It’s time for a class trial! Everyone, make your way over to the red double doors in the school building!” Monokuma’s voice rang out.

“Ugh, I guess that’s all the time we get. Let’s hope the other groups found something…” Yasuhiro shook his head. “We really don’t have much to work with here. Knowing the time of death doesn’t even help us either, since I don’t think the killer even had to be present to kill their victim.”

Everyone gathered up at the double doors. And when they opened, an elevator was revealed. They crowded in, and the doors shut behind them. A great sense of claustrophobia came over the group as the elevator descended into the darkness. There was no going back. There were no other options.

Find the culprit…

...or die.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A pretty short investigation. There's definitely not a lot to work off of here. I wonder how they'll find the culprit when so little leads back to them? With that said, any guesses on who the culprit is?
> 
> Also, I had the previous chapter ready a while ago, but I wanted to write this one first and post them as a pair so I knew I was getting all the crime scene details just right. Designing a crime is hard!
> 
> Anyways, I hope you're enjoying my work. Thank you so much for reading!


	11. Chapter 1: The Stomach Screams Louder than the Heart - Class Trial

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A very unusual trial indeed...

The elevator grinded to a halt.

“Hello hello!” Monokuma called from his throne. “Go find your stand! It should have your name on it.”

“That throne is so disgusting and gaudy…” Aoi commented.

“Hey, I heard that! I hope your legs fall asleep during the trial! Then you’ll be wishing you had this throne!” Monokuma raged.

Everyone found their position as indicated. To Makoto’s right, Kyoko stood emotionlessly. To his left was Chihiro, who was shivering.

He was happy to be between his friends (was Kyoko really his friend though? He didn’t know) but he didn’t really want to face them right now. He still felt guilty about his failure of an escape plan, and his temper tantrum. But now wasn’t the time for guilt. Circumstances demanded that he focused on the task at hand.

Also, disturbingly, the spot where Hifumi would have stood was replaced by his portrait, grayed out and painted over with a big pink X. Strangely, Junko’s portrait was the same. Had she died?

“Chihiro, what happened to Junko?” He asked.

“O-oh, you were never told... um, long story short, Monokuma murdered her…” She said. “I can tell you the details later…”

This was a shock, but Makoto didn’t really have the time to think about it.

“Alright, alright, enough banter.” Monokuma clapped his hands. “It’s time to get started for real!”

“Let's begin with a basic explanation of the class trial! So, your votes will determine the results. If you can figure out "whodunnit" then only they will receive punishment. But if you pick the wrong one... then I'll punish everyone besides the blackened, and the one that deceived everyone else will graduate!” Monokuma said happily. “In other words… find the culprit, or die. And to the culprit themselves, make sure that they don’t find out that it’s you! Cuz if they do, you die!”

Monokuma promptly shut up, and nobody said a word. Nobody was quite sure how to start.

Yasuhiro spoke up. “Alright… we should start with the facts. The easy stuff. First, I’m going to establish how Hifumi died.”

“Hold it!” Makoto held up his hand. “Before that, I want to know one thing: why wasn’t Sakura guarding Hifumi? He’s dead, and she hasn’t said a word about it.”

“I’ll explain.” Sakura folded her arms. “You weren’t there for it, but we decided to release his guard. After all, all of the food was removed. There was nothing to pilfer, and thus no purpose for guarding him.”

“Oh, I see… wait, but I don’t think that was such a good idea.” Makoto said.

“Well, in hindsight, yes, because he ended up dead, but-” Sayaka protested.

“No. What I would be personally afraid of is him killing someone. He seems like the type who could do it, so I wouldn’t have released his guard.”

Nobody had anything to say to that.

“Can we get back on topic, please?” Yasuhiro said. “I was going to explain how the crime was carried out.”

“Please!” Taka said.

“Take a look at these pictures of the crime scene.” Yasuhiro held up his e-Handbook, but it was kind of hard to see on the small screen.

“Lemme give you a hand with that!” Monokuma snapped his paw (how is that even possible?) and the image on his handbook was displayed on three large screens that were put up around the trial ground.

“From looking at this, can anyone tell me how Hifumi was killed?” Yasuhiro asked.

“Uhhhhhh, the axe hit him.” Mondo said.

“No duh, man.” Leon said.

“It looks like the axe is set to swing down when the door is opened.” Kyoko said.

“Yup. That’s right. The killer, whoever they are, glued a bunch of binder rings to the axe and the wall, tied strings to prop the axe up, then taped a knife to the door so that it would cut the string when the door was opened.” Yasuhiro pointed to the various implements that were used in the making of the trap.

“So the marker was used as an axis.” Byakuya noted.

“Right.”

“But… what if that trap is a trap?” Leon said.

“Uh, no shit man, it’s a trap.” Mondo replied.

“No, what I meant is… what if the trap isn’t really what killed him? It might just be there-”

“Dude, I don’t know what you’re about to say, but it’s not going to make any sense.” Yasuhiro cut him off. “The only purpose of making a trap that isn’t going to be used is to trick us into believing that the culprit did not have to be at the scene in order to kill Hifumi. That means that they _were_ at the scene, but that also makes no sense because this trap requires a lot of materials and would be impossible to set up in merely a few hours, since superglue takes time to dry. Since Hifumi died just a few hours ago, the trap could not be a trap.”

Leon was a little sad and didn’t retort.

“Let’s summarize.” Yasuhiro continued. “Someone created a trap that would kill whoever walked into the pantry. It would take quite a long time to make this trap. Did anyone notice anyone going into the kitchen really often, or spending a really long time in the kitchen?”

Everyone thought about it. Makoto, on the other hand, was completely lost, since he never exited his room.

“Can’t anyone just go and do it at night?” Taka wondered aloud.

“No, since the cafeteria and by extension the kitchen are closed off at night.”

“Oh.”

“Honestly, I kind of just hibernated in my room for the last couple of days…” Aoi said.

“Same… my body just shut down for a while there.” Leon admitted.

“So basically, we would have no clue who actually did it, since they could have just gotten up while everyone was sitting in their rooms, and set this up.” Taka summarized. “How frustrating.”

“Hmmm…”

A silence overtook the group, as they tried to recall anything that would help identify the one who set up the trap… but nothing came up.

“Hey! If you’re all done talking… then is it voting time?” Monokuma said coyly.

“No. There’s something else to discuss.” Kyoko stopped him. “Why did Hifumi go to the pantry in the first place? If we answer that, there’s a chance that it will point to our culprit.”

“Oh, good idea. I was confused by that myself.” Yasuhiro said. “I checked him for a note or something that might suggest he was called to the pantry… but I found nothing.”

“So he went to the pantry on his own?” Aoi asked.

“But why?” Sayaka questioned.

“There are a variety of explanations, actually.” Byakuya said. “For example, he went mad with hunger, and in his desperation searched the pantry, despite the fact that the search would be fruitless. Or, his hunger caused him to hallucinate food. Or, maybe he wasn’t delusional at all, but decided to search the pantry anyways in the hope that he would find a scrap that Monokuma missed.”

“I did start hallucinating donuts at some point…” Aoi admitted.

“How… interesting.” Celeste noted.

“Wait, I have an idea. Actually, it’s an idea I’ve had from the very beginning.” Makoto said. “What if… he went there to die?”

“What do you mean? You mean he killed himself?” Taka asked incredulously.

“Yes. I think he killed himself.” Makoto confirmed. “He set up the trap himself, then triggered it to kill himself.”

“No, no, no.” Yasuhiro shook his head. “That’s wishful thinking, Makoto. You’re just hoping that none of us here are killers, right?”

“W-well, I can’t deny that, but-”

“Your theory doesn’t make any sense. That trap was way too complex for something like suicide. He could have just stabbed himself or hung himself. And if he committed suicide, where is the note? He wouldn’t just kill himself and then not tell us. He’d be getting us all killed!”

“But what if that was his objective?” Byakuya asked. “Set up his suicide to look like a murder… get us to vote wrong… and then we all die? That’s completely possible as well.”

“Why would he want to kill all of us? And why would he kill himself to accomplish it? I didn’t know him very well, but I doubt that he would kill himself. He seemed to value himself too much for that.” Yasuhiro argued.

“Ugh, this is so hard… can’t we just guess and be done with it? There aren’t any clues.” Leon complained.

“If you want to bank on a one in thirteen chance of survival, then ok. But I would advise you to not do that.” Sakura said.

“One in fourteen, actually.” Byakuya said.

“I still don’t think Hifumi would ever kill himself.” Yasuhiro was adamant.

“Nobody found any clues during their investigation?” Makoto asked.

“As expected, we found signs that superglue, string, binder rings, duct tape, and a single marker were taken from the storeroom. So no, no clues.” Kyoko said.

“Sayaka and I found an empty spot in the display case… we imagine that that is where the axe came from.” Taka announced.

“We found no signs of the incinerator being used in the garbage room.” Byakuya joined in.

“We didn’t find anything weird…” Aoi said.

“Neither did we.” Leon said.

“So in conclusion: we have no clues.” Taka said dejectedly.

“Wait… I’m thinking about something.” Makoto said. “That trap was pretty complicated. It would take someone pretty smart to create something like that. Also, wouldn’t it have to be someone tall? After all, they super glued binder rings to the area above the door.”

“They could just stand on a chair.” Leon noted.

“Right. But it would still have to be someone pretty intelligent!”

“Like yourself!” Colonel Shou giggled. “Not to mention, I wonder why ahoge boy went to the kitchen in the first place? Maybe to check and see if his trap had gotten any results?”

“T-that’s not why I went to the kitchen! I just went there because-” He paused. “N-nevermind.”

“See? Totally G-U-I-L-T-Y!!!!” The Colonel screeched in laughter.

“Actually, I want to say that the culprit is rather likely to be one of the ones who knew the trick that Junko pulled with the paperclip box. The trap with this axe is quite similar.” Byakuya commented.

“Which trick?” Sayaka asked.

“Not telling.” Byakuya said. “Concealing that information from you is to our collective benefit, at least for now.”

Makoto was confused as well, but apparently Junko used a similar trap with a paperclip box?

“That makes our prime suspects myself, Shou, Aoi, Sakura, Mondo, and Kiyotaka.” Byakuya listed them off. He even included himself. “However, I am not the culprit. I would not be bringing this up if I were.”

It was a fair point, but he was still suspicious.

“Hey… another thing to consider would be height.” Yasuhiro said.

“Height?”

“Well, the axe would swing down to a specific height, yes? If Chihiro had opened the door, there’s a chance that the axe would actually miss. So I’d assume that the culprit used their own height as a reference. Since the axe hit Hifumi right in the middle of his face, I’d say the culprit was either the same height or very slightly shorter than him, so the axe would hit around where the brain is.” Yasuhiro explained.

“Wow, never thought of it like that… So… how tall is Hifumi?” Leon asked.

“170 cm tall, which means that most of the girls would fit the bill for someone slightly shorter. Makoto too.” Yasuhiro said.

“That makes Aoi and Shou the most suspicious…” Kyoko summarized.

“I can’t say that I couldn’t kill someone… but I can say that Toko can’t! And she was out and about the entireeeeee time. Not once did I show back up, not until she saw fatty’s blood!” Shou said.

“Prove it.” Byakuya snapped.

“ACHOO!” Shou sneezed.

“H-huh? Where am I? What’s-” Toko blustered.

“Answer me. Did you swap places with your violent counterpart at all after Junko’s death?”

“Huh? I- uh-”

“Answer. Now.”

“Um, no, we never swapped… unless she came out at night.”

“There we have it.” Byakuya said. “Since Toko does not share memories with Shou, she would not have known about the Junko’s trick. And since the kitchen is closed at night, even if Shou came out then, they would not have been able to make the trap. Of course, Toko might be lying, but she doesn’t even know what’s going on, so she probably would not lie in this context.”

“So Aoi is the most suspicious.”

“N-no! It’s not me! I-”

“Yeah, guys, she looks suspicious but that’s hardly proof.” Leon said. “We can’t just make a decision based off of flimsy reasoning.”

“Flimsy reasoning is the only thing we have.” Yasuhiro countered. “I hate to say it, but we’re all probably going to die… the killer did a super good job of covering up all of their tracks… and the motive caused us all to retreat to our rooms, giving the killer ample time to set everything up with no witnesses. We’re practically in checkmate.”

“I swear it wasn’t me… I couldn’t kill anyone like that…” Aoi sobbed.

“Dammit.” Mondo pounded his stand. “I just can’t see her as the culprit… but it’s not like we’ve got any better ideas. Fuck.”

“There’s one other possibility.” Kyoko announced. “One other person who fits the bill, given your reasoning.”

“Who would that be?”

“Hifumi himself.” Kyoko said.

“Dude, we already talked about this…” Yasuhiro said disappointedly. “He would not have killed himself.”

“Not intentionally, no. But what if he killed himself by accident?” She proposed.

“Uhhhhhh… what?” Leon, like many others, was confused.

“He made his trap, forgot about it, and got killed by his own trap. Think about it. Why would anyone place the trap in the pantry? Maybe Hifumi figured that others would go there out of desperation, like he would. Of course, this backfired on him, but…”

“I still think that’s way too ridiculous.” Yasuhiro would not budge. “How could he forget?”

“Hunger is a powerful motive.” Byakuya said. “Even one such as myself cannot help but be affected by it on a mental level. It would not be a stretch to say that Hifumi could have lost his senses and gone to the pantry in his mad search for food.”

“That’s still no guarantee.”

“There are no guarantees here.”

“Was it Hifumi then? Or Aoi? Or maybe someone else? We’ve got nothing at all!” Taka groaned.

And as people began throwing out their arguments for who they thought of as most suspicious, Makoto dug into the deep recesses of his brain to think. Byakuya had said there were no guarantees here, but he might be wrong… Makoto couldn’t rely on anyone else to remedy the situation. He had to do it himself.

First of all, he had to think like the culprit. If he were the culprit, and he were planning a crime, a trap like the one that was used would be perfect. However, would he put it in the pantry? Seems like a strange place to put it, given that nobody would go there. It would be more likely that they put it on the storage door, or laundry room, or even the trash room. Then again, that would put them at risk of being seen making their trap, but not if they did it in the middle of the night. So why did they choose the pantry? It would make sense if it were Hifumi. But then again, that’s not a guarantee. Thinking like the culprit had given Makoto no ideas.

No, there was something else he could do. He should not be thinking like the culprit, but instead, like the mastermind. If he could somehow force or convince Monokuma into telling them the culprit, they could all get out alive. So by thinking like the mastermind, he might understand how he could accomplish that.

Monokuma had once said: “First of all, I was actually planning on introducing a motive a little later! But SOMEONE started getting all nosy!” As well as: “I’m just going to give you this motive I thought of just last night!”

This meant that the current motive was not the intended first motive. It was given on a whim. And it was this first motive that caused such an unsolvable crime. If people were not hibernating in their rooms, it would be near impossible to set up such a complex trap without being seen. The mastermind had to feel somewhat responsible for immaturely introducing a motive that gave the culprit an opportunity to commit such a perfect crime.

And based on Makoto’s prior thinking, he was pretty sure that this entire ‘game’ was being broadcasted. Which means that Monokuma would be disappointed if the game ended so early on. So it was certainly possible that, given prompting, Monokuma would give them a ‘get out of jail free’ card.

But what could Makoto say to get Monokuma to do this?

…

…

…

“I’ve got it.” Makoto said loudly and clearly. His voice carried a weight with it that managed to shut everyone up. “I know how we can all survive this, 100%.”

He continued, “Monokuma. Tell me, is the killer the one who set the trap? Or is it the one who triggered it? After all, this kind of trap is triggered by a door opening. It stands to reason that the person who opened the door is the killer, because they were ‘wielding the weapon’.”

Monokuma seemed genuinely surprised. “Oh, um…” Monokuma looked away, sweating (robots can sweat?). “Telling you that would be the same as telling you the culprit!”

“No, it wouldn’t, unless the killer is the one who triggered the trap.” Makoto said. “After all, if it was the former, the killer could be anyone. If it’s the latter, well, Hifumi is the only choice. So if telling us is the same as telling us the culprit, then it has to be the latter, yes?”

“Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.” Was all Monokuma had to say to that.

“This trial is over.” Makoto said solemnly. “The culprit is technically Hifumi.”

“Wait, Makoto! We haven’t even found who set the trap though! If we don’t figure out who it was, then we’ll be going back upstairs with a killer!” Yasuhiro argued.

“We have to admit defeat. We’re never going to figure it out with what we have right now.” Makoto said. “Listen. Survival is our main concern. Which means that we should just take what we can get. I don’t want to stay in this room even a second longer.”

“Alright! Looks like you guys are decided! It’s voting time!” Monokuma chirped.

“W-wait! We’re not done discussing! We need more time than this!” Yasuhiro pleaded.

But Monokuma would not be swayed. Voting time was initiated.

Everyone ended up choosing Hifumi.

“That’s right! Congratulations, you all survived! Yaaaaay.” Monokuma let out a massive sigh. “Well, I really wanted to show off a cool execution, but… I can’t execute someone who is already dead… Anyways, yall can leave now… Actually, leave this very instant or I’m going to chop off your legs.”

Makoto didn’t need to be told twice, and neither did most people. The trial had ended suddenly, with a resolution that nobody was satisfied with, despite the fact that it had ended with no casualties.

Only Yasuhiro had to be dragged, kicking and screaming, to the elevator.

As the elevator slowly made its way back up, the atmosphere was somehow even more dead than it was on the way down.

Makoto had saved everyone with his quick thinking. His reasoning was completely on point. Everything he had deduced was correct. The mastermind, who knew the identity of the real culprit, changed their mind mid-trial to make the culprit Hifumi, simply because they wanted the game to continue. This is because they felt responsible for almost letting their game end. From now on, everything would be done by the books. No more curveball motives that lead to unsolvable crimes.

That night, the food supplier stopped by the front door, opened it without anyone seeing him, and dropped off several tons of food.

No more silly mistakes. This time, the killing game would be done _right._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... that was kind of a depressing ending to the chapter, huh? It's hard to know how to feel about it. On the one hand, nobody was executed and everyone escaped alive. On the other hand, now there's a good chance of a killer being among them. 
> 
> Makoto is pretty devious though. He completely manipulated the mastermind into doing what he wanted them to do. Also, the reason why Monokuma rushed the vote and got everyone to leave immediately is because the mastermind is now very aware and ashamed that their first motive was such a flop, and wants to move on as fast as possible. Pretty immature of them.
> 
> Sorry again for the wack ending. But I hope you're enjoying my work regardless, and thank you so much for reading!


	12. Chapter 2: Despair Done Right - Daily Life Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A new floor opens up... eventually.

Chapter 2: Despair Done Right - Daily Life Part 1

The next morning, everyone managed to show up for breakfast. It wasn’t surprising, given that they had been starving not too long ago.

“Looks like our food supplier bothered to drop by… Monokuma wasn’t lying about releasing the motive once someone had died.” Celeste commented.

The mood was relatively somber. Sensing this, Sayaka made an effort to stand up and say something.

“Guys, I know that two of our friends have died, but… things could have been worse. While we can’t forget their deaths, we need to move on, and escape for them. So let’s see some smiles, alright? We can’t give up!”

Everyone looked at her like she was stupid. Granted, the speech was beyond cheesy, and it was debatable if the two who died were even their friends at all. A sentiment that Leon had no problems putting into words.

“I don’t know if I’d really call them our friends.” He muttered.

“Is anyone going to tell me what happened to Junko? I still don’t know.” Makoto raised his hand.

“It turns out Junko was a traitor, working with the mastermind. She’s the one who attacked you and prevented us all from escaping. After we exposed her, Monokuma murdered her, saying something along the lines of ‘you’re not useful anymore’.” Taka explained. “It was… quite terrible. I would not wish such a death upon anyone. Not even her.”

“Huh.” Makoto didn’t know Junko very well before she had died. He got the feeling nobody did. But he wasn’t really thinking about Junko right now. He was more preoccupied with how his escape attempt ended up failing.

“By the way guys… I’m sorry.” Makoto stood up before he fully planned out what to say. “I, uh… I really messed up with that plan. It’s my fault that we couldn’t escape. I’m really sorry…”

“That’s not true in the slightest!” Taka yelled loudly. “Nobody else had any better ideas, and the only reason your plan failed was because there was a traitor among us! Nobody can fault you for your actions!”

“Y-yeah!” Chihiro chimed in. “We got really close, and it was only thanks to you!”

“But…” Makoto still felt guilty. ‘Really close’ meant nothing. It was effectively the same as ‘never tried in the first place’. He sighed and sat back down, not wanting to argue any further.

“There’s a more pressing matter to focus on though…” Yasuhiro interjected. “Finding the culprit who set up that trap! Unless we discover who they are, they’ll just try again! So come on! Let’s eat quickly and go re-investigate.”

“Hmph. Y-you can do that on your own, if you w-want… don’t count me in th-though…” Toko crossed her arms.

“Nobody expected you to…” Leon replied.

“If you believe that this course of action is for the best, I will endeavor to assist you!” Taka shouted. “Just tell me what I need to do!”

“Slow down, man. Eat your breakfast first. And stop yelling.” Mondo said, uncharacteristically calm.

Everyone ate, and people were beginning to clear out.

“Hey, wait!” Yasuhiro reached out to them but they walked away swiftly, not wanting to be recruited for investigation duty. “Ugh…” He shook his head. “Makoto. Come over here and gimme a hand, dude.”

“No.” Makoto said almost a little too quickly. “I don’t… well, I don’t really… can I not?” He ended dumbly. He was going to say that he didn’t see the point… but that wasn’t true. He just didn’t want to investigate again.

“What? Why not!?” Yaushiro shook him by the shoulders. “C’mon, dude! Our lives are at stake here! You can’t not see the seriousness of this!”

Makoto looked away from Yasuhiro’s earnest face. He couldn’t bear to look at it. “I just don’t want to.”

“I-I don’t understand you, Makoto. Why do you not want to help me with this? We’re dealing with someone who attempted murder here! We need to find them! Unless… _you’re_ the one who set up the trap?” Yasuhiro came to the realization.

“No, it wasn’t me. If it was, I wouldn’t have convinced Monokuma to change his mind about the killer. I would have just let us vote wrong.” Makoto said lethargically. “To be completely honest… I just don’t see the point. Whether we find them or not, the end result is the same… we’re all just going to be killed by Monokuma eventually. It’s all pointless.”

Yasuhiro took a step back. “You can’t mean what you’re saying.” His voice shook as he said this. “What did you do with the real Makoto?”

“This _is_ the real me, Yasuhiro. We failed, and we aren’t getting a second chance. I’ve decided to accept the end… I’m sure the viewers will be frustrated if I just don’t play the game. So I’ve decided to do nothing.” Makoto stood up and walked away.

“Wha- Hey! I know that’s not how you really feel! And what did you say about viewers? You can’t just say that and walk away from me! Hey-!”

As his voice faded into the distance, Makoto realized he had no idea where he was going. He just wanted to get away from Yasuhiro, away from responsibility…

He eventually found himself taking out the trash. It had piled up quite a bit since he hadn’t taken it out once before. But given that nobody was eating anything for quite a while, it wasn’t as much as one might expect from a week’s worth of trash.

He watched it burn in the incinerator. It was kind of mesmerizing, how the bags caught fire and shriveled up.

He bumped into Chihiro on the way out.

“U-um…”

As she paused, Makoto waited. Things were kind of awkward…

“M-Mondo was going to host another training session… now that we aren’t starving or anything... and we got some more people to join… I was wondering if you wanted to come too?” She squeaked out.

Makoto had nothing better to do. In fact, hanging out with the others might be just what he needs to perk up. If he was going to spend his last days here, may as well be having a fun time with his friends. Well, he couldn’t quite call them friends yet, but… they all shared a terrible fate, which automatically made them friends, kinda. Right?

When they arrived, Mondo, Sakura, Aoi, and most shockingly, Byakuya were already there.

“Huh? Byakuya? You’re here too?” Chihiro couldn’t help but ask.

“Don’t misunderstand me. I’m simply here to keep fit. My body is a national treasure… and it requires maintenance from time to time. I simply happened to be here at the same time as the rest of you. I’ll be doing my own thing, so don’t mind me.” He went off to a corner of the gym and began doing his own exercises.

“Eh, fuck that guy anyways.” Mondo said cheerily. “Now come on! We’ve got a workout to do!”

The five worked out together, this time following Sakura’s lead. Her guidance was far more nuanced than Mondo’s, and the workout worked a lot of different muscles. It was actually kind of fun, surprisingly.

“So... “ Aoi caught her breath. “I’m no stranger to workouts like these, but why’d you wanna host one all of the sudden, Mondo?”

“Well, it was actually Chihiro’s idea. She wanted to get stronger, y’see. And I guess getting help from the Ultimate Martial Artist was too good an opportunity to pass up!” Mondo laughed.

“Awww, that’s so cute!” Aoi grinned. “I can’t wait to see you get all huge and muscly! Hrrrrrr!” Aoi flexed and puffed out her cheeks.

Chihiro blushed a deep scarlet and looked away.

“Now I’m just imagining a super buff dude with Chihiro’s face.” Mondo said. “Hahahahaha!!!”

Makoto started laughing too. “Like, in those memes? Where we’ve got a guy with a massive body but a tiny head, and they’re saying ‘hold the f up’, right? Now it’s stuck in my head too!”

“Oh, I’ve seen that before!” Aoi started laughing harder, and the laughter caught, and soon she alongside Mondo and Makoto were rolling around on the ground, heaving.

“I fail to see what’s so funny…” Sakura crossed her arms and closed her eyes in disappointment. “That mental image is not a pleasant one.”

“Y-you’re so serious all the time, I-” Aoi guffawed. “I can’t with you-” She kept laughing.

Chihiro, previously colored in bright red, began to chuckle too. “You know, it is a little funny…”

When everyone was done laughing their asses off, Chihiro addressed the group.

“At first, I was embarrassed by that mental image, but seeing your faces… well, it made me realize that there’s no need for me to be so insecure! It’s pretty easy to turn anything into a joke if you try hard enough…”

“Hm. That is a pretty interesting idea, though.” Makoto noted. “We should turn the killing game into a joke. We might all die anyways, but at least we’d be spiteing whoever put us in here, right?”

“Hey, don’t say such morbid things!” Aoi reached over and smacked Makoto good-naturedly. “But yeah, I agree! I’m all for spiteing the game!”

“Hey, you hear that ya shitty bear? Fuck your game!” Mondo called out.

No response.

“Heh. Pussy.” Mondo grinned.

“Ok, that does it!” Monokuma dropped down. “I’ve had enough of your stupid verbal abuse! If you think that you can just-”

“Wow, he really showed up. Guess he has nothing better to do than to argue with children.” Makoto shrugged. “Honestly, the bait we threw out was so totally obvious. The fact that you took it anyways? Leads me to believe that you’re some manchild.”

“Shut up! I’m not a manchild! I’m-” Monokuma paused. “Well, anyways, screw yall! I can’t believe how immature you are, insulting me like this!” Monokuma zipped away.

“Yeah, we’re the immature ones, not you…” Aoi rolled her eyes.

“This is a little off topic, but I wanted to ask… are you two, like, an item or something?” Mondo just said point blank.

“Who, us?” Makoto pointed between himself and Chihiro.

“Yeah, you. Who else would I be talking about?”

“Well…” Makoto blushed as he looked quickly from Aoi to Sakura and back again. “You weren’t being clear…”

“Just answer the question, man.” Mondo said, not catching Makoto’s eye movements.

“Us? No.” Chihiro said, totally calm headed. “We just get along well.”

“Yeah.” Makoto agreed, completely. “Why’d you ask? Are you perhaps… checking to make sure that one of us is available?”

“Wh-what? The fuck you sayin’, man?” Mondo blushed and recoiled back. “Wait, and why’re you including yourself in there?”

“Come on, Mondo. I’m the Ultimate Fanfic Writer. I’m nothing if not open minded…” Makoto smirked. Mondo looked frightened.

“Alright, alright, I’m just joking, ok? Sorry for weirding you out.” Makoto sighed.

“Ugh.” He shook his head, as if to rid himself of blasphemous thoughts. “But really, I wasn’t checking you guys out or anything, I really was just curious. Makes me wonder though… why’d you think you two get along so well anyways?”

“Well, we’re both writers, for one…” Chihiro started.

“We’re both cowards.” Makoto declared proudly.

Sakura raised an eyebrow. “You say that like it’s a good thing…”

“And, you’re both tiny!” Aoi grinned. “You’re like a pair of little mice!”

“What?” Chihiro shrunk back. “L-like a mouse?”

“Huh. I think I can see it, yeah. Even your hair colors are like mice.” Mondo nodded. “Though actually, Makoto seems a little more like a hamster to me.

Makoto didn’t know how to feel about being compared to a rodent. At least he was being compared to a hamster instead of a rat. Eh, that was barely any consolation though.

“And something about the both of them just makes you want to… y’know… protect them!” Aoi said.

“Please don’t put it like that… Please don’t turn me into one of _those_ characters…” Makoto begged. He did not like the direction this conversation was turning.

“Oh, but you totally are.” Aoi was merciless. “I bet that in elementary school, you were that small, unfriendly kid who always played by themselves in the corner of the school yard! The one that the teachers always talked to to try to get them to get along with the rest of the students, but they could never quite succeed? Yup! That’s you!”

How in the world was she right about that.

“That look on your face tells me… I’m right!” Aoi pumped her fist. “And no explanation is needed for Chihiro.”

“I feel kinda bullied…” Makoto muttered.

Just then, Byakuya passed by, having finished his workout.

“Oh, see you, Byakuya.” Makoto waved to him.

“Hm.” Was his response.

“I don’t know how you get along with that guy, Makoto. He’s a total grouch! Though I guess he did help us all find the traitor, which was nice of him. So I guess he’s not all bad.” Aoi said.

“He’s a bit prickly, but he’s pretty reliable and definitely acts in our best interest… he’s more caring than he lets on, I think.” Makoto answered.

“Yeah… I can tell he hates having to cooperate with us, but he does it anyways because he knows that it’s for the best… so he’s not that bad.” Chihiro nodded.

“Well, you guys actually hang around him, so I guess you’d know him better than me. But I still think he’s a dick.” Mondo said.

“Can’t argue with that…”

At this point, everyone got up from their sitting positions and took a look at the clock, which read noon. It was lunchtime.

“Let’s go grab food. And we should do this tomorrow as well!” Aoi jumped up and down excitedly.

Makoto wasn’t sure he could handle another day of working out. It was pretty hard for him. But talking with the rest afterward was so much fun, that there was no way he couldn’t go.

“By the way…” He interrupted their leaving. “I want to apologize to you all for how I acted after our escape attempt failed… I may not remember any of it, but I behaved really badly, so… sorry.”

“Don’t sweat it! Honestly, I might’ve done the same, in your position. Not that I’d ever be there, since I’m not smart enough to think of a plan in the first place! And even if I did, it would never come that close to succeeding.” Aoi smiled back.

“Indeed. In light of the fact that you came _so_ close… your frustration was definitely justified.” Sakura chimed in.

“Sometimes I go batshit crazy over stuff too, man. Smaller stuff, even. Nobody here blames you.” Mondo gave a thumbs up. (Wait, I understand that you’re trying to cheer me up but that’s kind of concerning, you know?)

“Mhm! So no more self deprecation, alright?” Chihiro ran up and gave him a short hug. “Now come on, let’s go eat. I’m hungry.”

Wow, even Mondo, who seemed like a thug, was actually a really nice person. Makoto was glad to have friends. Funny… he could never seem to make them before (in-person anyways) but now, put in a life-or-death situation, he was making friends left and right.

“Hey, where’s Yasuhiro? Everyone else is here…” Aoi noted.

“He insisted on continuing his search for clues, despite my pleas for him to take a break and have lunch!” Taka said. “I am most disappointed in his decision. A healthy body houses a healthy mind! One cannot think while hungry! Therefore, his persistence is actually counterproductive in this case.”

“And…” Taka added sadly. “Please do not share my words with Yasuhiro, but I am afraid that his search will turn up fruitless. I do not think that we will get any closer to the truth behind that incident through just investigating…”

“Wait, wait! I just had an idea! Can’t we use fortune telling to find out the culprit?” Leon smacked his fist into his palm. “Why didn’t we think of this before?”

“Uh, because fortune telling doesn’t work like that.” Makoto answered. “I think.” To be more clear though, Makoto didn’t believe in fortune telling at all. He just decided to word it the way he did to not stir up any trouble.

“While it may not give us a direct answer, it could still grant us valuable clues.” Celeste said, shuffling a deck of Tarot cards. “So, do you wish to see my divination?”

“Yes! Come on, show us!” Leon said excitedly.

“Then you will have to pay.” Celeste said simply.

“What?”

“My fortune telling does not come free. Did you expect it would? Let’s see… considering the life of a human being, an ultimate no less, is in the balance depending on the results of this divination, the cost should be appropriate. An average businessman earns an average of 200 million yen over the course of their entire life. I will be generous. Despite the fact that the human being in question is an ultimate, not an average person, I will not increase the cost. No, in fact, I will decrease it. That is the extent of my generosity. A mere one-fourth of the original cost. 50 million yen is the price I will ask.”

(Author note: 50 million yen is around 500 thousand USD.)

“ARE YOU HIGH? 50 MILLION YEN?” Leon screamed. “OUR LIVES ARE AT STAKE HERE! _YOUR_ LIFE IS AT STAKE HERE!”

“No, it isn’t.” Celeste said calmly. “I’ve already done a reading for myself… and, well, I know that I will not be murdered, at the very least.”

“You’re bluffing.” Leon slammed the table. “I know you’re bluffing. So drop the cost and just give us the fortune telling, you- you money grubber!”

“Who’s the money grubber here? I’m sure you have at least that much money. You’re the Ultimate Gambler, after all.”

“I obviously don’t have any money on me.” Leon complained. “So you can’t charge me anyways.”

“No, I can. I’ve written up a legal document right here. If you sign, then you owe me 50 million yen, and I’ll give you the reading.” She held up a piece of paper. “You can pay me after you escape, if you ever do.”

“I’m not paying that ridiculous sum. You may as well be telling us to go die!”

“No, I am simply being consistent. I cannot start giving readings for free just because of circumstances. But if you do not want to pay, then you can kindly leave now.”

Leon turned to Byakuya, who was doing his best to not pay attention. “Hey, you, model guy! You’re rich, right? Can’t you pay for this?”

“While I could, I do not believe in fortune telling. Therefore, it would only be a waste of my money.” He responded without looking up.

“Ugh, fine. Can someone else who does believe in fortune telling pay this?” Leon looked around desperately.

“You think we’ve got that much money?” Makoto raised an eyebrow. “We’re just highschoolers.”

“Yeah, like Celeste said… if anyone is gonna have enough money, it’s you.” Aoi shrugged.

“Wait, but you’re an idol. Doesn’t that make you rich?” Leon was grasping at straws here.

“No, not really. I don’t even know how much money I own, but it’s probably not a lot. I spend it all splurging or goofing off during my precious little free time.”

“C-come on. You guys are ultimates! I’m sure that some of you have the money. Right?”

“Yeah, some of us do. Like you. So if you want it, pay for it. I don’t believe in fortune telling either, so I’m not really fussed about any of this… but you’re the one who’s so desperate. You should be the one to pay.” Makoto got up to put away his plate and utensils.

Makoto busied himself doing the dishes so that he had an excuse to not go back into the cafeteria. He didn’t want to hear Leon whining any longer. People came in and out, thanked him for doing the dishes, and dropped off their dirty plates. Fifteen minutes later, and he had cleaned everything that he possibly could clean.

“Makoto! Makoto!” Chihiro ran into the kitchen. “The second floor is open! Monokuma just told us!”

“Huh? Monokuma did? But I didn’t hear him at all.”

“Yeah, he was acting kind of sad and stuff, and didn’t talk very loud. But anyways! The second floor! Come on, we have to explore it!”

“Alright, alright, give me a second.” He rinsed and dried his soapy hands, and followed Chihiro to the school building.

Sure enough, the gate that had previously closed off the stairs had been removed.

“Everyone else is already up there.” Chihiro explained. “They were excited to find a potential way to escape. Of course, I couldn’t leave you behind, so I stayed to tell you!”

“Thanks for that.” A little rude of them all to run off like that. They walked up the stairs, and took a look through the halls first. Checking the map on their e-Handbooks, they found that it had been updated to reflect the new floor. There was a pair of bathrooms, a swimming pool (with attached changing rooms), and a library. There was also another set of stairs, but they were blocked off.

“Let’s check out the library.” Makoto decided.

“Yeah!” Chihiro agreed. Although the pool was closer, neither Makoto nor Chihiro was very interested in swimming. The prospect of a library was much more interesting to them.

To their delight, the library was absolutely packed with books. Shelves lined every single wall, and every shelf was full to the brim.

“Oh wow! How exciting!” Chihiro started taking books from the shelves and looking them over. “Huh, so it’s organized by genre…?”

While Chihiro busied herself trying to figure out how the library was organized, Makoto was doing some thinking. Something felt off to him, somehow. The room was weird for some reason. 

Trying to figure out why he felt weird, he went back over the sequence of events that led up to the strange feeling. He was looking at the map, and then he entered the library, and from then on, something felt off.

That was it, the room seemed smaller than what the map suggested. But why would the map lie like that? The only answer would be…

Makoto started feeling around the edges of each bookcase. Eventually, he found one that moved. Shoving it aside, he revealed a hidden door behind the bookcase.

“Aha!” He couldn’t help but shout, startling Chihiro out of her focus.

“W-whoa! Did you find that, Makoto?” Chihiro asked.

“Yup. The room seemed smaller than what the map suggested, so I just made a guess that there was a secret room. Luckily, I was right.” He grabbed the handle and swung the door open.

A surprised Byakuya stood up with a jolt, dropping a binder in his hand. “Wha-?”

He quickly stood up and stormed out of the hidden room, glancing around the library furiously. “Good. It’s just the two of you. Get in here. Now.” He forcefully shoved the pair into the hidden room and followed them in, slamming the door behind him. He then tapped on a little interface next to the door.

“Byakuya? What are you doing?”

“I’m impressed you found this room.” Byakuya said, ignoring the question. “I must ask you to not reveal this room to anyone else though.”

“But why?” Chihiro asked.

“Because there is dangerous information here. It would be for the best if people did not see it. It may give them… ideas.” He folded his arms.

“Ideas? You mean like… murder? That’s the only thing that applies.” Makoto picked up the binder. He flipped through it. It was a case file on a murder.

“Yes. But more importantly, I believe this room is proof that we are in the real Hope’s Peak. It’s not definite proof, but it strongly suggests it.” Byakuya said. “And that in itself means that the school, as a whole, has fallen. If the others hear about this, they are sure to panic. And that would be annoying.”

“What about this room suggests that?” Makoto thought that secret rooms suggested something else… like maybe the presence of a traitor, or a mastermind. Though they already rooted out the traitor. Unless Monokuma’s willingness to kill the traitor was just a smokescreen to cover up the existence of another traitor? These ideas would have to wait though.

“It’s because nothing in this room seems like something useful for a traitor or a mastermind.” Byakuya answered, as if reading Makoto’s mind. “It’s just a bunch of sensitive documents pertaining to certain incidents in the history of Hope’s Peak. It would make sense if a school as prestigious as this one had a room like this built in, in order to take stock of their secrets and keep them hidden. If we’re just in a replica, I don’t see the logic in procuring all of these files. It would be extremely difficult and relatively pointless. Therefore, we’re in the real deal.”

“Huh, ok. But seriously, should we entertain the idea of a mastermind? Or another traitor? Now that I’ve thought of it, I can’t get it out of my mind.” Makoto admitted.

“Nothing points to there being another traitor or there being a mastermind among us, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t exist. But I suggest not bringing that up amongst the group. It would sow distrust and ultimately cause a killing. We should only present the idea of a traitor or mastermind when we’ve got a chance of catching them. Which means that we must be sure.”

Makoto nodded thoughtfully. It was kind of awkward since Byakuya just said everything, and he had nothing useful to add. But the discussion was getting good, so he wanted to keep going.

“Hey, so, if we’re in the real Hope’s Peak, then why haven’t people noticed? I’m sure that Hope’s Peak being hijacked is a huge deal. And another question. If we’re in the real Hope’s Peak, then how do you explain our falling asleep at around 7 AM the first time we got here, and waking up at 8 AM? When I saw the school from the outside, everything was entirely normal. No steel plates on windows, and I’m sure some of the ugly classroom decorations didn’t exist in the original Hope’s Peak either.”

“I can answer both.” Byakuya smirked. “Firstly, I’m sure that people have noticed. But the school is likely fortified with automatic weaponry. Remember, the culprit who trapped us here is capable of manning a highly realistic animatronic. Who’s to say they can’t also set up an automatic defense system so powerful that nobody can get near the school? Secondly, your assumption that all the changes to the school were made within a single hour is completely flawed. Since it is impossible. No, it is more likely that we were put to sleep for a full day, or maybe even two. We don’t know what date it is, exactly. And it’s impossible to check, considering Monokuma would be our only source, and he could just lie.”

“Wait, you’re saying we were put to sleep for more than a day? But… that’s not healthy. It doesn’t quite make sense, because if we were put to sleep for that long, our brains would start shutting down. I think. I’m not sure.” Makoto said.

“Well, in that case, maybe they simply put us to sleep, then when we woke up, gave us some drugs or traumatized us in one way or another to make us forget all our waking hours, then put us back to sleep.” Byakuya said nonchalantly.

“That sounds terrible! But… plausible?” Chihiro said.

“Another thing. The person who trapped us here is almost definitely someone from inside the school. One of the staff, probably.” Makoto reasoned. “Taking control of the school from the outside doesn’t seem likely to me.”

“Agreed. One would have to be preparing for this for a long time, and the only way one could make proper preparations is by having inside knowledge.” Byakuya said.

“So, in summary… our captor is a Hope’s Peak employee who has taken over the school and turned it into a grounds for our killing game, and they put us to sleep or forced us to forget a certain period of time in which they installed their weapons and added window plates. Yes?” Chihiro said. “But there’s one thing I’m still curious about. What’s their motive? I just can’t comprehend how someone could force something so terrible onto us.”

“It could be anything. Jealousy, malice, some kind of sick perversion… we don’t know. But I do believe that this game is not a means to an end. No, this game is meant to be played in full, and enjoyed; by the mastermind; in full. While there may be an ‘end goal’ attached to the game, being our eventual deaths, I don’t think that that is the point. Otherwise, we’d all be dead already.” Byakuya explained.

“Right… but the game gives us a chance. Listen, guys. I’m almost entirely sure that this game is being broadcasted. Otherwise, how would the mastermind obtain funds for the food, water, and electricity?”

“Wait, Makoto. Water and electricity? Couldn’t the government put in an order to their respective companies to shut it off in the building?” Chihiro brought up.

“Don’t be an idiot. All that would do is kill us. I’m sure the government isn’t trying to do that. But… you do have a point about the electricity. If it was turned off, then eventually, backup generator or not, power would run out and the theoretical automatic defenses would shut down.” Byakuya touched his cheek thoughtfully.

“Guys, we can discuss that later, can I get back to my point?” Makoto said. “What I’m trying to say is that the mastermind can’t break their own rules, otherwise the audience would probably be upset. We might be able to use that against them.”

“Oh, I see!” Chihiro grinned. “So… which rules do you think we could use against Monokuma?” She brought out her e-Handbook, and the others did the same.

A quick refresher on the rules:

Rule #1: Students may only reside on campus (school building and dorm building included). Leaving campus is not allowed under any circumstances.

Rule #2: “Nighttime” is from 10 pm (22:00) to 7 am (7:00). Access to some areas is prohibited during nighttime, in which case they will be closed off.

Rule #3: Sleeping anywhere other than the dormitory rooms will be seen as sleeping in class and is thus prohibited. (The exception is if the sleep is caused by an outside force, such as being drugged or knocked unconscious.)

Rule #4: You are free to explore Hope’s Peak academy at your discretion.

Rule #5: Violence against the headmaster is prohibited, as is the destruction of the video cameras and video monitors.

Rule #6: Once a killing takes place, a class trial will begin shortly after. Participation in the class trial is mandatory.

Rule #7: If the guilty party is exposed during the class trial and voted upon with a majority vote, they alone will be executed.

Rule #8: If the majority vote names an innocent party, the culprit alone will graduate and all other students will be executed.

Rule #9: Lending your e-Handbook to another student is prohibited.

Rule #10: A killer may only kill one other student to cover up their original crime. This is to prevent students from going on a murder spree in order to forgo the trial process.

Rule #11: A “body discovery announcement” is played when three or more students discover a body. Whether this includes the culprit or not is up to the headmaster’s discretion, in order to prevent the announcement from being used to determine the culprit.

Punishment Rule: The punishment for breaking any of these rules is decided by the headmaster, Monokuma. Punishment may include, but is not limited to: torture, death, a slap on the wrist, harsh reprimanding.

Rulemaking Rule: New regulations may be added to the rules at any time. New rules become effective five minutes after a majority of the students become aware of the new rule.

“The punishment rule is a problem. If Monokuma breaks a rule, he can just decide to punish himself very lightly. So… the only rules we can plausibly use against him are the ones that specify a punishment.” Makoto pointed to the rule.

“Which means the only thing we can do is make Monokuma a ‘guilty party’ and then vote against him.” Byakuya said. “But voting for Monokuma isn’t an option in the first place, so that seems rather hopeless.”

“Maybe, but if we prove to the audience that Monokuma is the killer, Monokuma would have no choice but to play along.”

“Or he could not, and kill us all. Sure, he’d probably lose funding and prestige, but we’d all be dead.” Byakuya spat back. “It’s not worth the risk.”

“Not only that, but… someone would have to die for that to work, right? I don’t think we should let that happen.” Chihiro looked sad.

Well, that was a problem, Makoto supposed. But he was desperate and didn’t really care. It was either one person makes the sacrifice, or everyone eventually dies. But they did have a point. This plan wasn’t going to work. But he also didn’t have any other plans.

“If we’re done talking, we should get out of this room so that people don’t notice that we’re missing.” Byakuya went back over to the door and inputted something into the interface.

“By the way, what is that?” Chihiro pointed at the interface.

“It simply controls the movement of the bookcase. Wouldn’t want the hidden door exposed while we’re in here.” He opened the door and left the room, and the others did the same, closing the door and sliding the bookcase back into place.

“Byakuya, where are you going next?” Makoto asked.

“I skipped past the pool to explore this place because I knew less people would be around… I’m guessing they’re just about done investigating the pool, so I’m going back there to look around once they’ve cleared out.”

Makoto and Chihiro followed Byakuya, passing by a grumbling Mondo, who didn’t look too pleased to be hanging out with Taka. They ended up in the pool lobby area. A sign on the wall informed them of the pool rules.

The Pool Rule:  
Use your e-Handbook to unlock the door to the locker room. You may only unlock the locker room that corresponds with your sex. If you attempt to unlock the opposing locker room, you will be gunned down. Also, only the person who unlocked the door may pass through it: the door will automatically lock once one person has passed through. No funny business. You have been warned.

“Monokuma seems to care a surprising amount about privacy.” Makoto observed.

Just then, the door to the girl’s locker room slid open and Aoi walked out. It slammed shut, then opened again to let out Sayaka. This locking and unlocking process occurred a couple more times to let out Celeste and Kyoko.

“Man, I understand that it’s for our privacy, but the whole locking-unlocking thing gets annoying.” Aoi said. “Oh, hey, you guys! Where’ve you been?”

“The library.” Makoto responded.

“Oh, is that all there is left to explore on this floor?”

“Yup.”

“Meh, I don’t need to look there.” She puffed out her cheeks.

“Bruh.” Chihiro whispered. Nobody heard her though.

Byakuya, however, was wasting no time with idle chit-chat, and had already entered the boy’s locker room. Makoto moved to follow. “See you on the poolside, Chihiro.” Chihiro opened her mouth to say something, but the door slammed shut and locked. Eh, whatever she had to say could wait until they made it to the pool.

Leon was in there, busy gearing up for a swim. “Oh hey guys. It’s been a while since I’ve gone for a swim… I figured that I’d do it.”

Byakuya looked away in distaste. Leon was rather shamelessly wearing a bright red speedo. Makoto wasn’t into it either. Nah, it was pretty disgusting.

Leon left the room, and they eventually heard a splash, signifying him entering the pool.

“That was unpleasant.” Byakuya commented.

“I’m going to have to agree with you there.” Makoto nodded. “Let’s just take a quick look around the pool and get out of here, yes?”

They entered the pool area. The pool was huge, possibly olympic size. Apart from that, there was nothing interesting in the area. Leon was frolicking around, and Sakura was swimming laps at breakneck speeds. There was a lone locker in the back, but unfortunately it held nothing of interest.

“I think we’re done here.” Byakuya left without another word.

Makoto followed. But it was weird that Chihiro wasn’t around. Maybe she decided to stay behind? He would just check, and if she wasn’t back at the first room, he’d go back to the pool and wait for her.

Sure enough, she was waiting in the first room.

“Hey, what’s up, did you not want to investigate the pool?” Makoto asked.

“I… uh, no. Actually, I don’t know how to swim, you see… and I’m kind of scared of large bodies of water.” She admitted.

“Well, that’s a shame.” Makoto said. “But maybe you could get Sakura to teach you? I’m sure she’d be willing to do it.”

“Th-that’s ok.”

She seemed rather excited to get stronger by training with Mondo, but she didn’t share the enthusiasm with wanting to learn how to swim… maybe she just really hated water?

With nothing else to do, they wandered back to the cafeteria, where, sure enough, most people were waiting. After a bit, Kyoko, Celeste, and Sayaka joined the group, making it so only Leon, Sakura, and Yasuhiro were missing.

“So! Let us discuss our findings!” Taka boomed. “Mondo and I explored the classrooms! They are basically identical to the classrooms on the first floor, and there is no hope of escaping from the windows.”

Mondo let out a huge sigh.

“We also discovered a library! But we did not investigate very closely, since I have no confidence in my book smarts!”

“And, of course, I’m sure you all went to the pool.”

“Speaking of the pool…” Aoi interjected. “Who wants to have a pool party!?” She threw out her hands, expecting a reaction of some sort, but instead, she got:

“...”

“...”

“...”

“Seriously, a pool party at a time like this? Sorry, but there’s no way I’d be able to get into it.” Mondo was one of the only people to say anything back.

Aoi looked disheartened. “Oh…”

“Wait, I think it’s a good idea though!” Sayaka jumped in. “We could all use a bit of cheering up, right? Not to mention, strengthening our bonds with each other can only be helpful in the long run.”

Byakuya rolled his eyes. “Count me out.” He straight up left the room.

“I-I don’t know how to swim, so… count me out too.” Chihiro got up to leave as well.

“Wait, I can teach you! Or even if you can’t swim, you can always just have fun by the side of the pool!” Aoi reached out and grabbed her arm.

Chihiro panicked and shook her grip off. “S-sorry! But I don’t want to!” She ran off.

Makoto wasn’t feeling in a pool party mood either.

“I’ll be in the library if you need me.” He said, and then got up to leave.

He aimlessly walked back up to the library. On the way there, he spotted Yashiro in one of the classrooms, meticulously searching every nook and cranny. It was a bit of a sorry sight. He moved on without saying a word to him.

Entering the library, he saw Chihiro, as he had expected.

He wordlessly grabbed a book and sat down across from her, and began reading. Chihiro looked briefly up from her own book, said nothing, then kept reading.

They sat there for the next couple of hours.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been a while since my last update. Sorry for the delay! I ran into a brief period of writer's block, but I also just didn't know where to end the chapter, so I ended up writing a lot. This update is probably really long. I think. Maybe.
> 
> A lot of different things happened in this chapter so I'm not going to comment on all of them.
> 
> But regardless, I hope you're enjoying my story! And thank you so much for reading.


	13. Chapter 2: Despair Done Right - Daily Life Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Makoto's Spidey Sense (tm) is going off and it is uncomfortable. Also, he sucks at cooking.

At some point, Kyoko came into the library. Makoto noticed, but Chihiro, who wasn’t facing the door, didn’t. Despite this, Makoto just ignored her and kept on reading. He wasn’t about to ruin his moment of peace by talking.

This was a mistake. His moment of peace would be forever lost, regardless of whether he opened his mouth or not. But since he chose not to acknowledge her, he had to suffer a terrible prickling at the back of his neck every time she glanced over at them. He didn’t see her glancing at them… but he knew that it was happening. He was completely sure. Why would he feel so uncomfortable otherwise?

What did she want from them? Did she want to join in? They were friends, kind of. Maybe? Maybe not. If she wanted to join in, she could just grab a book, sit down, and read silently. Nobody would mind. 

It had become unbearably awkward, and it was only getting worse. Makoto had to open his mouth, but he was locked in place. It was one of those moments when you’ve been silent for so long, you can’t talk or even move unless you make a huge effort. You can try and try, but unless you really _mean_ it, you won’t go anywhere. And so he remained silent and continued staring at his book, which he had been trying and failing to read for the last few minutes.

As he felt the prickling sensation return, he broke free from his temporary paralysis and whipped around. He saw Kyoko, sitting a ways away, jerking her head back to her book, caught in the act.

He couldn’t help himself: he let out a chuckle.

“What’s up, Makoto?” Chihiro whispered. “Did something funny happen?”

“Yeah, that.” He pointed his thumb over his shoulder, back at Kyoko.

“Oh, I didn’t realize she was here. But what’s so funny about Kyoko?”

“She’s been staring at us from time to time. Did you seriously not feel her gaze? It was kind of spooking me, to be honest.”

“I… didn’t notice. At all.” Chihiro scratched her head. “Should we ask if she wants to join us?”

“If you want.” Makoto said neutrally, though in his mind, he was really saying ‘please yes, just so she stops staring at us’.

Chihiro got up and walked over to Kyoko while Makoto tried to figure out where he was in his book. He had been absentmindedly flipping pages and had lost track of his place.

Oh? Are you curious as to what Makoto is reading? Well, he’s reading a fun book by the name of _Snow Crash_. Give it a read some time, I’d highly recommend it. But enough shilling. Back to the story.

Chihiro returned with Kyoko in tow.

“So. You weren’t feeling the pool party either?” Makoto asked.

“No.” She said.

“Hm, I’m not surprised. I’m guessing you had nothing to do and came here.”

“...Yes.”

“To be perfectly frank, it was really uncomfortable being stared at. If you have something to say to me, please say it so that I know that I wasn’t being stared at for nothing.”

“...I wasn’t staring at you. It must have been your imagination.”

Makoto’s eyes widened. “You really- you know what, nevermind.” His confrontational behavior had sadly backfired. He gave Kyoko a chance to clear the air, but she just waved that chance away in favor of more uncomfortable tension.

Makoto pretended to go back to reading his book for a while, then decided that he wasn’t being confrontational enough. Time to try again.

He put his book down. “Seriously, why were you glancing over at us? I want to hear the truth, alright? I was getting really spooked, and I’m not just going to lie down and take it without knowing why.”

“I _told_ you,” she said, exasperation creeping into her voice, “I was not glancing at you. Alright? I don’t know why you’re asking this.”

“Then what was that little head movement thingy you did when I looked back at you? You were clearly looking at us!”

“Th-that was just a coincidence! I… lost my focus and was staring blankly for a while.”

“Fine! Don’t tell me!” Makoto slammed his book shut, stood up rather violently, and shoved his chair in. “But I won’t be sticking around in a place where I’ll just feel uncomfortable. So, goodbye.” He stomped out of the library.

As he swiftly walked past the pool, he self-reflected. He was definitely acting immature, that much was true. But what could he say? He was a tense, high-strung guy, and he couldn’t bear the atmosphere anymore.

...But he still ended up yelling over something relatively small. The best thing to do would be to go back and apologize. If he apologized, then everything would be fine, right?

No, it wouldn’t. Let’s say, theoretically, he went back into the library, apologized for losing his temper, and sat back down to read, what would happen next? Nothing would happen. Kyoko would likely accept his apology and then continue to do nothing. He would still feel uncomfortable, given that she just blatantly lied to him. It wasn’t right.

So no, Makoto would not be the one to apologize. At least, he wouldn’t apologize first.

But that’s also incredibly immature. Thinking ‘I won’t apologize first’ is a pitfall and is definitely the worst kind of mindset. Makoto decided to go back and apologize, since it was the right thing to do. Don’t overthink things, just go back, apologize, and leave again.

But if he just left straight away, it would be like he didn’t mean his apology. That would be a terrible look for him. It really seemed like there were no correct answers.

As he stood in the hallway, pondering what to do, he felt a tap on his shoulder. It was Chihiro.

“Hey, um. Can you come back to the library? Kyoko has something she wants to say to you.”

What? No way!? Was he being rescued?

He wordlessly followed Chihiro back, where Kyoko was waiting.

“Alright.” Chihiro said softly. “Kyoko. You were going to say something?”

“Uh, yeah. S-sorry for lying and saying that I wasn’t glancing over at you. I just- I was kind of embarrassed when you called me out so suddenly, and I just lied on reflex. Sorry.” 

“Oh, uh.” Makoto was shocked. No way. He _was_ being rescued! “That’s ok. It wasn’t a big deal. Wait, uh, no, I just said that out of habit. It was kind of a big deal to me. So… I’m glad it wasn’t malicious, or anything.”

Kyoko looked relieved. “Also, sorry for glancing over in the first place. The reason I was doing it was because I wanted to join the two of you, but I wasn’t sure how to approach you, and I felt like I would just be getting in the way… so…”

“Huh?” Makoto’s hunch was right, but hearing from the horse’s mouth was refreshing. “No, no! You wouldn’t be getting in the way at all! Rather, please approach us right away next time, I felt really uncomfortable when you were just on the side like that.”

Then, Makoto came to the startling realization that… “...actually, it’s kind of my fault too. I saw you walking in, and I had the chance to call out to you, but I was lazy and didn’t. We could have averted this whole shebang if I had just opened my mouth…”

“Oh…”

“Also, sorry for getting angry. I was being really overly sensitive.”

“That’s ok, I wouldn’t like getting stared at either… it’s not a great feeling.”

They both nodded in understanding.

Chihiro clapped her hands together. “Alright! You did it!”

Makoto cocked his head. “Did what?”

“You guys made up, of course! I’m glad.” She smiled.

And then all the relief Makoto felt at being able to apologize was replaced by the strongest feeling of gratitude and admiration he had ever felt in his life. This was all Chihiro’s doing. She was the one who had coaxed the truth out of Kyoko and got her to apologize. She was the one who went and got Makoto to come back. It had all gone according to her plan. And she didn’t do it for any selfish reason. No, she did it because she genuinely cared about the two of them and didn’t want to see them fighting.

And for that instant, Makoto was consumed by a singular thought: I must not let this person die.

And then his incredible realization came to an end, and his mind returned to earth.

“Actually, while I’m at it… I might as well tell you guys something.” Kyoko said.

“Hm?” Chihiro looked surprised. So this wasn’t part of her script?

“Well, you know how my talent is just being lucky?”

“Yeah.”

“It’s not a real talent, so I honestly feel a bit… out of place here. I’ve never been good at socializing, and this whole ultimate talent thing just makes it worse…”

“So you think your talent is worthless, huh? And that’s keeping you from approaching people?” Makoto summarized. “Listen, my talent is writing fanfiction. If it weren’t for Hope’s Peak apparently ‘guaranteeing success’, I would definitely be a neet. I don’t think that you have anything to be ashamed of. Also, I’ve never had in-person friends before now.”

“Hey, stop making my inner turmoil feel like a minor inconvenience.” Kyoko laughed.

“Compared to my inner turmoil, yours is small beans.” Makoto puffed out his chest with fake, hammed up pride.

“Ok, that’s funny, but also… you wanna talk about that?” Kyoko said, somewhat concerned.

“Well, there’s the fact that I’m pretty much a neet, the fact that I broke down in front of anyone and almost cracked my own skull open, the fact that my whole escape plan failed, the fact that we’re in a killing game and Hifumi’s killer is still wandering around, etcetera etcetera.” Makoto listed off, unfussed.

“Oh… well that’s understandable.”

“But enough depressing stuff. It’s 5 pm.” Makoto said. “I wonder if the pool party is over yet?”

“Why not check?” Kyoko suggested.

“Hmmm. Ok.”

Makoto went and checked the pool, and sure enough, most everyone else was in there, having fun.

Back in the hall, where Kyoko and Chihiro were waiting, Makoto told them the news.

“They’re having too much fun. Someone still needs to make dinner, you know.” Kyoko said.

“Then that someone can be us!” Chihiro laughed. “Time for another adventure in the kitchen!”

The corner’s of Makoto’s mouth curled up into a devilish grin. “Oh yes… I know that Monokuma loves it when we do that.”

The two rushed off to the kitchen, not waiting for Kyoko to catch up.

“Alright. Let’s make something fun. Like curry, or something. But not the prepackaged kind, since that’s boring.” Makoto suggested.

“Sounds like fun to me!” Chihiro agreed.

Kyoko entered the kitchen, looking a little exhausted. “Jeez, you guys run fast.”

“Maybe the training we’re doing with Mondo is paying off?” Makoto joked, knowing full well that it wouldn’t have made a difference so quickly.

“Speaking of that… do you want to join us next time?” Chihiro asked.

“Uh… if you really want me to, I guess I can join.”

“Please!” Chihiro said, hands clasped and eyes sparkling.

Makoto rolled his eyes. As if anyone could refuse an earnest request from a face like that.

Of course, Kyoko could not refuse.

“Wait a minute, I wonder if the library has any recipe books.” Makoto thought aloud. “Lemme check.” He flew back up to the second floor, rummaged through the shelves, and found a book that had a nice recipe for curry that he was pretty sure he could manage. Running back downstairs, he slammed the book in front of Chihiro and Kyoko.

“Look at this. It’s a simple curry that uses coconut milk and some other stuff. I think it would taste pretty good. Let’s try it.”

All three of them were complete disasters.

\---

“Kyoko, why’d you throw in that ginger?”

“Didn’t you say to put the ginger in…?”

“Look here! At the book! It says ‘ginger, minced’! You’re supposed to chop it up, not just throw the whole thing in! Use common sense!”

“Wha- how was I supposed to know that?”

“Like I said! Common sense! But seeing as you’re lacking it, you could have just read the book, since it tells you!”

“Well, how about you be more specific next time?” She challenged.

“I shouldn’t have to specify something so braindead obvious!” Makoto clutched his head in agony. “Fish it out of the pot and chop it up, will you?”

“Fish it out? Are you crazy? I’d burn myself!”

“Not if you use a spoon, idiot! Come on! Think a little!”

“Sh-shut up!”

\---

“Makoto, what are you doing?”

“Making some rice, obviously. Curry and rice go together.”

“Well, yes, but you’re doing it wrong, I think.” Chihiro said.

“Wrong? How?”

“You need to put water into a rice cooker… it won’t steam unless there’s water.”

“O-oh, whoops. That was close. I wonder what happens if you try it without water though…?”

“Please don’t.”

“Yeah, you’re right. Man, how’d I miss something so obvious?”

Kyoko, from across the room, shot Makoto the stink eye. Makoto flinched.

\---

“Chihiro! Are you ok? You’re bleeding!”

“...no I’m not. The meat I’m cutting up is just a little bloody, that’s all.”

“Meat shouldn’t be _that_ bloody! Are you sure you didn’t accidentally cut yourself? Let me look at your fingers!” Kyoko grabbed Chihiro’s fingers.

“Ow!” Chihiro winced. “W-wait, is that a cut?”

Sure enough, Chihiro had cut her fingers. She started breathing rapidly.

“O-oh my god. There’s so much blood. There’s so much blood.” Chihiro muttered. Her legs gave out and she collapsed onto the floor. “A-am I going to die?”

“No, you aren’t! Nobody dies from nicking up their fingers! Calm down! Hey, Makoto, get some bandages or something!”

“Er, ok.” Makoto ran off to get bandages.

\---

“Ok, I’m dumping the meat in, alright?”

“Sure, go ahead.”

Makoto dropped the pile of chopped chicken unceremoniously into the pot, which created a sizable splash and covered him in burning hot liquid.

“ARE YOU BRAINDEAD?” Kyoko blurted out.

“OW OW OW OW OW DON’T JUST STAND THERE, HELP ME!” Makoto screeched, wiping at his face and stumbling around towards the sink.

\---

“Argh!”

CRASH! BANG! THUD!

“Uh, Kyoko, you doing ok in there?” Makoto peeked into the pantry to see Kyoko buried in cans.

She reddened. “You saw nothing.”

“Hmm, I guess I saw nothing. Nobody who needs my help, that’s for sure.” Makoto walked away.

“W-wait a minute! Get back here and help me clean this up!”

\---

“What are you clowns doing?”

“Byakuya? Why are you here?” Makoto asked.

“I’m here because you’re creating an infernal racket and it’s getting on my nerves. Are you cooking again? I saw Chihiro out in the cafeteria with bandaged fingers.”

“Uh, yeah, we’re cooking. Curry, to be precise.”

“Why is some of it spilled on the floor?”

“Because I accidentally spilled it.”

“Clean it up, now. If you were to slip on it, it would be dangerous.”

“Uh, ok.” Makoto wiped it up.

Byakuya opened a drawer and took out a wooden spoon. He dipped it in the curry, touched his finger to the spoon, and licked it. “Not very flavorful.” He commented.

“Uh, really? But we followed the recipe, and it says that it’s supposed to have a strong flavor.” Makoto said.

“Let’s see.” Byakuya looked it over. He looked back at the counter, where all ingredients were spread out. “You three truly are idiots, aren’t you?”

“What? Why?” Makoto yelled.

“Because that’s not a tablespoon you’ve been using. That’s a teaspoon. Which is only one third of a tablespoon. All your spices are lacking.”

“B-but it says ‘tsp’ on it! Doesn’t that stand for tablespoon?”

“No, it stands for teaspoon. What you’re looking for is the one with ‘tbsp’. How come you don’t know something as basic as this?”

“Guh-!”

“Also. Have you been stirring the curry? It seems awfully unstirred to me.” Byakuya walked over and began stirring the pot with his wooden spoon.

“Agk.” Was Makoto’s only response.

\---

Eventually, the curry was done, and it tasted really good. Thanks to Byakuya.

The four sat around a table, ready to dig in, but then…

“Someone is there!” Makoto felt a prickling on the back of his neck and he turned around to see Toko staring from the cafeteria doorway. “Oh, it’s just you. I was afraid that the pool people had returned. Then we’d have to share.”

“But I thought the whole point of us cooking was for their sake, since they were busy at the pool?” Chihiro said.

“I changed my mind, this curry is too good. I don’t want to share it with them.” Makoto said. “Oh, but you can join us if you want, Toko. I don’t mind sharing as long as it isn’t with _everyone_.”

“How generous of you.” Kyoko’s voice dripped with sarcasm.

Byakuya just tutted and began eating. Despite all his disappointment in them, he was still sitting next to them and eating with them.

Toko sheepishly went to the kitchen, came back with a bowl of curry, and sat down next to Byakuya.

“D-don’t think this is me a-accepting your invitation…” She grumbled. “I’m just hungry. I was going to take your food with or without your permission.”

But despite your words, you decided to sit with us instead of sitting alone...

“By the way, is that colonel person your alternate personality?” Makoto asked out of nowhere. “They were there for the trial, but I never got properly acquainted.”

“Ugh. I d-don’t like talking about Shou. They’re a pain in the ass… Whenever they come out, everything always goes wrong… and since I don’t share memories, I’m clueless when I have to deal with the aftermath…”

“That sounds pretty rough.” Makoto said.

“You’d never understand.” Toko said angrily.

“Nope, I never would.” Makoto said freely.

Toko didn’t quite know how to respond to this so she just kept eating.

“Hey, shouldn’t we go find Yasuhiro? I’m sure he’s hungry by now.” Chihiro said. “I don’t think he’s eaten all day.”

As if on cue, Yasuhiro poked his head into the cafeteria. 

“Hey, there he is! Yasuhiro, are you hungry?”

As if on cue (again), his stomach grumbled so loudly that they could hear it from across the room.

“I’ll take that as a yes.” Byakuya smirked.

Makoto went to the kitchen to grab a bowl of curry for him. He returned, handed it to him, and sat back down.

“Thanks guys…” Yasuhiro sounded tired beyond belief. He wasted no time scarfing down his food. Everyone else took the time to eat as well.

When they had all finished, Yasuhiro spoke up.

“Hey, Makoto. Sorry for pressuring you this morning. I know that you took the whole failed escape pretty hard, and that you were probably just tired… anyways, I’m not going to give up on finding the culprit who set that trap, but I’m not going to force anyone to help me… Sayaka and Taka were kind enough to help for a while, but I could tell they were getting tired.”

“I’m sorry too. I said a lot of defeatist things, but… I’ve changed my mind.” Why had he changed his mind? Well, there were a lot of people here who deserved to live. If any of them died while he did nothing, then he’d never be able to forgive himself… “If I’m going to die, I want to die fighting. Giving into despair sounds like playing right into Monokuma’s hands. And you know that I’ll do anything to spite that bear.”

Makoto waited a beat for Monokuma to show up and complain, but Monokuma did not.

“That’s the spirit, eggy!” Yasuhiro pumped his fist. “Anyways, I’ve decided to look for evidence that Hifumi was the one who set the trap. That’s what I’m hoping, anyways. I just can’t imagine anyone here seriously trying to kill anyone. Hifumi seems like the only one who fit the bill.”

“Yeah, I agree.” Chihiro nodded. “Though it’s not good to speak ill of the dead like that…”

“Hmph. So it’s ok to speak ill of the living? Because that is the alternative.” Byakuya crossed his arms.

“T-to be fair, it’s all that bear’s f-fault…” Toko spoke up. “Nobody would ever do anything l-like that in a normal school…”

Makoto was very surprised to hear something like that from Toko of all people. It was refreshing, hearing it from a gloomy person like her. Everyone else was surprised as well.

“Wh-what? Did I say something weird…?”

“Ha, you’re a lot more positive than you let on, Toko!” Yasuhiro laughed. “Anyways, I’m getting me some more curry.”

People went for seconds.

As they returned to the table, they found Monokuma waiting for them.

“You guys… you’re getting too cocky.” Monokuma warned. “Your stupid optimism and friendship… I’m going to crush it under my paw! Just you wait!”

Monokuma backflipped away.

“What was that all about, dude?” Yasuhiro asked rather pointlessly.

“Who knows?” Kyoko said.

“Whatever. Let’s get back to eating curry.” Yasuhiro sat back down and began eating again.

But Makoto couldn’t help but feel a sinking in his stomach. Something about Monokuma’s demeanor made him feel that it wasn’t just an empty threat...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kyoko is finally opening up and is willing to act like a clown, just like the rest! But when anyone other than Makoto and Chihiro shows up, she shuts up and turns back into mysterious girl.
> 
> I didn't exactly plan for this whole "Makoto sucks at cooking" thing to turn into a recurring gag but I think I'm going to do it, considering how much fun I have writing these scenes. He is, as they say, "the entire circus" when it comes to cooking.
> 
> Thank you so much for reading my work, and I hope you're enjoying it!


	14. Chapter 2: Despair Done Right - Daily Life Part 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Monokuma rolls out his motive!

The pool-goers returned to the cafeteria.

“Hey, you guys didn’t tell us that you were going to having a party of your own!” Aoi pointed accusatorily at the group of curry-eaters.

Makoto threw up his hands. “We never planned this! We just got hungry at the same time.”

“Sure, but you’re all sitting at the same table.” She huffed.

“Damn, we’ve been outed.” Yasuhiro snickered.

“I see nothing wrong with their behavior!” Taka declared. “I too am hungry! And It is only natural to want to sit with your friends, yes?”

“Right on!” Yasuhiro cheered, changing his mind.

The rest of the evening was enjoyable, although more food had to be cooked since there wasn’t enough curry to go around. Despite it, everyone seemed to be coming together. The group seemed a bit more close knit after the events of the day, and things were looking up.

Which is why Monokuma’s words seemed all the more ominous…

The next morning, Makoto woke up feeling as though something was terribly wrong. He got up and made his way to the cafeteria as quickly as possible, where only Sayaka and Taka were waiting.

“You made it early today!” Taka beamed. “Glad to see that you’re feeling better today, Makoto!”

“Yeah! I just want to let you know again that nobody here blames you for what happened to Junko or Hifumi.” Sayaka said.

“Thanks.” He said. The fact that she needed to reassure him like that only made him feel kind of doubtful about the genuinity of her words…

They both went back to the kitchen, and a few moments later, arrived with omelettes. They both sat down next to Makoto. He felt a little suffocated, but it wasn’t like he could say anything about it.

“So, I noticed you’re getting along well with Kyoko, Byakuya, and Toko, yes?” Sayaka asked him.

“I guess so.”

“I’m glad for you! But actually, I’m not asked just to congratulate you. It’s just that… they seem a bit more distant than the rest of the students, and I was interested in knowing what you’ve done to get along with them. I really want to get them to join in with the rest of us so we can be unified as a group, but, well…”

“What have I done to get along with them…? I don’t know. I’ve been myself. Maybe we’re just similar people? They’re all kind of grumpy, and so am I, so…”

“What? You’re not grumpy, Makoto! No, on the contrary, I’d say that you’re our hope! It was all your ideas that led to us almost escaping. We all believe in you. So don’t say that you’re grumpy.”

“Can’t I be all that and grumpy at the same time…? They don’t necessarily contradict each other.” Makoto pointed out.

“Oh, I- I guess so…? But I still don’t think you’re grumpy, ok? Don’t say that about yourself!”

“Anyways, you’re embarrassing me with all that ‘you’re our hope’ talk. It’s so corny… seriously, I’m nothing that special.”

“But you are! Nobody else had any ideas at all for escape, but you came up with a great one!”

Sayaka’s positivity was absolutely staggering. He had to change the topic, or they’d be going around in circles.

“Er, thanks. But back to our original topic. You mentioned Kyoko, Byakuya, and Toko… but wouldn’t I also kind of fit into that group of antisocial people?”

“Well, you’re always with Chihiro, so I wouldn’t say you’re antisocial at all! And I know that you’re totally willing to work together with the rest of us.”

“But I chose not to go to the pool party. So…”

“Oh, I know you only did that so Chihiro wouldn’t be lonely, since she can’t swim. Why else did you go to the library?”

“Huh? How’d you know I went to the library?”

“Because you said so before you left.”

“Oh right, I kinda forgot about that. Anyways, if you want to get along with them… I don’t really know about Byakuya or Toko, but you should just try inviting Kyoko personally. She might seem a little unapproachable, but tip toeing around is definitely not the right move. Be direct.”

“Ok. Thanks!”

As more people flooded into the cafeteria, Makoto’s attention was drawn to the door. His bad feeling had still not gone away, and it was only getting worse. Everyone seemed to be here… except for Leon. Could it be…?

Ten minutes later, Leon walked into the cafeteria like nothing was wrong.

“Sorry for being late, dudes!”

Makoto let out a sigh of relief and also secretly cursed him for causing him anxiety like that. The idea that someone had died was ridiculous. Nobody would seriously kill anyone, especially not after the good mood that had formed from yesterday.

As everyone was finishing eating, Monokuma popped up.

“Hey guys! I’m so excited to reveal to you-”

“Gah! It’s that damn bear again!” Mondo yelled.

“Ugh, get that stinky little ursine away from me.” Yasuhiro plugged his nose and waved Monokuma away.

“DON’T INTERRUPT ME! THIS IS MY MOMENT!” Monokuma boomed. “Anyways, what was I saying, before I was so _rudely_ interrupted?”

“Ah right. I’m excited to reveal to you… THE NEXT MOTIVE! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!” Monokuma laughed heartily.

“Everyone, I’ll be seeing you at the A/V room! Be there, or be dead!” Monokuma did a little spin and vaporized.

“Ugh. Do we seriously have to go?” Leon complained.

“Yes. Unless you prefer being dead.” Byakuya said coldly, and walked out of the cafeteria.

As instructed, everyone went to the A/V room, where a cardboard box filled with tapes was waiting for them.

“This box definitely wasn’t here before.” Kyoko noted.

“I’m guessing we’re supposed to watch the tapes?” Mondo rifled through them. “Hey, they’ve got names on them. Our names, in fact.”

“That’s right!” Monokuma said over the intercom. “Go find the tape with your name on it, and watch it for me! Pretty please? And if pretty please ain’t enough, do it or I’ll snap you in half!

Everyone complied.

Makoto watched as the screen in front of him came to life. It was… his family!

“Makoto! Good luck at Hope’s Peak!” His mother said.

“Don’t slack on your studies son! We believe in you!” His father said.

“I always thought you’d grow up to be a shut-in neet, but boy you’ve proved me wrong!” His sister laughed. “Go get’em, bro!”

“Komaru!” His parents complained simultaneously.

Makoto grinned unconsciously. It had only been a week or so (unless Byakuya’s theory was correct, in which case it could be any amount of time, but then again, it _felt_ like only a week) but he already missed them. This was probably a video taken just after he entered Hope’s Peak (which actually lends a lot of credence or Byakuya’s theory now that he thought about it).

And then the scene turned to static, and when it came back… the room, his family’s living room, was destroyed. His family was nowhere to be seen. 

Makoto’s eyes widened in shock, then hardened. He should have been expecting this. Monokuma was the one forcing him to watch the video. There was no way it wouldn’t be threatening.

“Oh my? I wonder what happened to your kind, loving family? Could it be that they’re in danger…?” Monokuma’s voice said in a mocking falsetto.

The screen faded to black, and then displayed a single sentence in disgustingly gaudy font and colors.

FIND OUT AFTER GRADUATION!

That was it. That little disgusting cherry on top was the last straw. Makoto slammed his hands down on the console. But he had no words to express his rage. He just stood and seethed.

“THE FUCK WAS THAT, HUH?” Mondo exploded. “YOU FUCKING LITTLE SHITTY BEAR! GET DOWN HERE SO I CAN FUCK YOU UP!”

“This video isn’t real… this video isn’t real… no…” Sayaka sobbed.

“M-my team…! How could you be so cruel!?” Taka’s voice cracked.

“This can’t be- grrrrgh…” Sakura gritted her teeth.

“Ha ha ha ha ha!” Monokuma dropped in. “Feeling the despair yet? I bet you are! Eat that, you stupid kids! Anyways, if you want to help your loved ones, then maybe you should kill someone! Eh? Anyways, have fun suspecting each other!” He left.

“Ngh…” Even Byakuya seemed really shaken. “I’m assuming we all saw something similar?”

The ensuing silence served as confirmation.

“As much as I hate to say it… maybe we should talk about what we saw in our videos.” Taka suggested. “If we tell each other what we saw, we don’t have to shoulder our burdens alone, and-”

Aoi, who had been shivering and muttering in the corner, suddenly shrieked, “I NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE!” and bolted from the room.

“Wh-what? Guys! Everyone calm down!” Taka pleaded uselessly.

Sayaka was totally breaking down and not listening to a word he said, Yasuhiro was just staring blankly into space, and Chihiro was curled up into a little ball. Sakura had gone after Aoi, and Celeste was just leaving the room as if nothing was wrong.

“Wait, no, don’t leave!” 

It was all but useless. Nobody wanted to listen to Taka.

“Wh-why are you guys all freaking out so much…?” Toko mumbled. “What did you see on your videos?”

“What? Are you saying your video didn’t show your loved ones getting- what did you see?” Leon said.

“I just saw a bunch of soldiers… I know them vaguely but I don’t really care about them. I bet Shou would be upset though.”

“Wait, you said soldiers? Were they government soldiers?” Byakuya sounded panicked for once. “Give me that video. I need to see it.” He snatched it out of Toko’s hands and put it back into one of the video players. Makoto, Kyoko, and Taka also crowded around to watch.

“Go wild, Shou!” One of the soldiers said.

“Yeah! You deserve it, you crazy bastard. Make us proud!”

“Good luck at Hope’s Peak!”

A few more shouts of encouragement came from the crowd of soldiers.

They were all standing in some kind of military training ground… just as with Makoto’s video, the screen was consumed with static, then displayed the training ground, ruined, with nobody to be seen.

“Oh my? I wonder what happened to your military buddies… nothing bad, I hope?”

FIND OUT AFTER GRADUATION!

“Wh-where was that, Toko? You must know. I know that Shou is the one who is the Ultimate Soldier, but you had to have come out from time to time there. Where was that? Was it a government run facility? Because if so…” Byakuya shook.

“No, no way.” Makoto’s face fell. “Whoever captured us is powerful enough to ruin a government facility like that?”

Toko nodded slowly. “Y-yeah. It’s a g-government facility. I’m n-not supposed to say which, though…”

Everyone in the room who was paying attention was in complete shock now. Whoever was behind Monokuma had the strength to actively defy the government. Getting rescued from the outside seemed like a pipe dream.

“I- I considered the possibility that the content of some of our videos is fake… our captor could have simply stolen a video of our family wishing us luck, then attacked and ruined the scene of the video in order to make us believe that our families had been captured…” Byakuya explained. “But given that they can freely attack a government facility… there’s no doubt they can manage a few kidnappings.”

A long silence followed.

“So… I don’t know what to do about that… but I still think we should talk about what we saw.” Taka said sadly. “I’m going to tell you all… whether you like it or not. I saw my middle school baseball team. They were all cheering me on, and Monokuma… he…” He put his hand over his face.

Mondo put his hand on Taka’s shoulder. “I can go next, if you want… What I saw was my sparring buddies. They’re all a bunch of weak little shits compared to me, but-” He choked up.

“But I love’em, man!” He cried. “They’ve all got their own styles- they’ve got so much potential, but Monokuma, that fucking bear… dammit. A man shouldn’t cry like this.”

It was Taka’s turn to put his arm around Mondo, and they sobbed manly tears together.

“Sniff… get your goody-two-shoes ass hands offa me...”

“Sob… I will not…”

Monokuma returned. “Hey! I didn’t give yall those motives so you could have a touchy feely sob session! You guys should be getting paranoid and planning out murders!”

Taka and Mondo sobered up at the sound of Monokuma’s voice, looked over, and simultaneously said: “No.”

“Gah!” Monokuma keeled over in mock pain. “Darn you!” Monokuma seemed to slide into the ground, out of existence. Hilariously, Monokuma’s interference only seemed to lessen the tension.

Nobody was speaking, so Makoto summoned the courage to do some sharing of his own. “I can share what I saw next, if you like. It was my family. Nothing special. My mom, my dad, my sister… I’m worried about them, but I don’t think they’d want me to become a murderer just so I could see them again. And besides… the rest of you obviously have precious people on the outside waiting for you as well. Condemning any of you to death would just be wrong.”

“Well said. I’m impressed by how clear minded you are.” Byakuya praised him. “As for me, I also saw my parents. Though I am an only child.” He didn’t elaborate any further.

“As for me, I saw my grandfather…” Kyoko said. Her eyes were a bit bloodshot, but she otherwise looked alright. “Like Makoto said, I don’t think he’d want me to become a murderer… I’d rather die than return to him a criminal like that.”

...return to him? Did she live with her grandfather? Food for thought.

Apart from Sayaka, Yasuhiro, and Chihiro, who were all still in shock, Leon was the only one remaining who hadn’t shared. They looked at him expectantly.

“I saw my cousin…” He didn’t say anything else. It seemed he shared out of peer pressure rather than actually wanting to. Did he have something to hide?

“Ugh! No!” Taka said all of the sudden.

“What? What is it?” Makoto asked.

“We have been neglecting our friends! They are in need of consolation! I can’t believe that I was so consumed with the idea of relieving pressure off my own shoulders when these three clearly need it more!”

He had a point: they kinda just ignored those who were most affected by the motive.

“Hey, Chihiro, have you been listening?” Makoto knelt down to talk to her.

She nodded, not looking up.

“Do you mind if you tell us what was on your video? We’re all in the same boat here, and…”

“I saw… my dad.” She hiccuped. “I- I love him so much, I- my dad isn’t going to die, is he, Makoto? Please.” She was begging now. “Please tell me he’s going to be ok. Please Makoto!”

Makoto opened his mouth, but no words came out. He wanted desperately to tell her that everything would be ok, that her dad would be fine. But the reality was that he couldn’t, because he didn’t know. What to choose?

A beautiful lie?

Or the cruel truth?

Unfortunately, his silence spoke for him. He did not decide in time.

Chihiro broke down crying. “No… No…”

Makoto couldn’t hold in his tears either. What he had said earlier wasn’t a lie: he would not become a murderer for his family. But also, he had shut the obvious peril they were in out of his mind. If he didn’t do anything… they really would die. Maybe they were even being tortured right now. It was too much to bear.

“Chihiro…” Makoto found the strength in his voice again. “This is why… this is why we have to stop Monokuma. We can’t let ourselves be deterred. Come on. Stand up. We need to beat him _for_ our families.”

“Y-you’re right… I’ve always been weak… and my dad has always protected me… so it’s only right that I do the same for him. We’re going to get out of here… Monokuma can’t stop us.” She wiped her eyes and stood up.

“Good on you, kid.” Mondo smiled. “I know this is kinda corny to say, but strength of the heart is more important than any bodily strength… you have a drive to keep improving at all times. We can’t let ourselves lose to our manchild captor.”

“Indeed!” Taka chimed in.

“One down. Two to go.” Byakuya drolled.

“Wha- our friends are not bullet points to be checked off a list!” Taka pointed at Byakuya.

“They are to me.” Byakuya shrugged. “But whatever.”

“Sayaka!” Taka shouted at her. “Please! Tell us what you saw in your video! You are clearly upset, and I strongly believe that sharing will help you to feel better!”

She looked over at Taka with empty eyes. Empty of emotion and empty of tears alike.

She ignored him and simply left the room in a zombie-like state.

“Guh!” Taka made to go after her, but Mondo held him back.

“Dude, go later. We should stick around to see what Hiro here has to say.”

“So, Yasuhiro. Have anything to say for yourself?” Byakuya asked.

“Hey! Quit it with the rude language!” Taka said.

Yasuhiro looked over at the group. “I’m really sorry, but I don’t think I can talk about what I saw in my video. I’m sorry. Maybe I can tell you later, but… I’m not ready right now.” He also left.

“Hm. Well, that just makes me more curious. Though he definitely doesn’t seem as dangerous as the others… then again, any one of us could be forcibly hiding our emotions to seem not as fussed. Even myself.” Byakuya thought aloud.

“Wait, the fuck you talking about?” Mondo said. “The way you’re talking, it’s like you’re expecting one of us to go and do some killing!”

“Of course I am. Unlike the last motive, which was totally unplanned and completely juvenile, this motive seems well planned out. You saw how some of us reacted. I wouldn’t be surprised if _those_ people decided to kill someone.”

“What!? Shut up! Nobody is going to kill anyone!” Mondo protested. “Stop jinxing it, you fucking little priss!”

“‘Little’...? I’m taller than you, you know. But putting that aside, I’m just being realistic. If a body does in fact show up… you know who to suspect.” With those ominous words, he left the room.

Do I know who to suspect? Makoto pondered for a while. Byakuya was saying that the ones who reacted badly to the motive would be trying to kill someone. Given that Aoi literally said ‘I need to get out of here’, she could potentially be dangerous. But also, it was kind of ridiculous to think of her as a killer. She was one of the last people Makoto would suspect, normally. But… the circumstances weren’t normal, so maybe…

Suspecting his friends made his head hurt. He didn’t want to think about it anymore…

But he had to. Just like Byakuya said, if a body _does_ show up, he had to be ready. Who else was suspicious? Hiro? Sayaka? They definitely weren’t forthcoming with their motives. Celeste, maybe? She had advocated that they simply accept their situation, but that could easily be a lie. It’s possible she wasn’t just lying to everyone else, but lying to herself too. With that said, it’s possible that some people were actually lying about what they saw in their video...

There was no proof behind any of the suspicions though. It’s not like he could act on them.

“So… what now?” Toko broke the silence.

“...We go and try to convince the others to share the contents of their videos with us! Or, if they wish not to, we can simply comfort them! It is only common courtesy.” Taka said.

“C-comfort them? Y-you really think that it’s g-going to be that simple?” Toko argued.

“Whether it ends up simple or not, it is our responsibility to try! After all, we are all in the same boat here!”

“And a single leak can bring the whole ship down…” Makoto said without thinking. Last time, when Hifumi died, they had not actually solved the case. Makoto had simply convinced Monokuma himself to resolve the trial for them. Next time, there would be no guarantee. They would have to solve the case or die. Which meant that Makoto had to do anything to prevent a murder from occurring in the first place.

“Let us go!” Taka strode off.

“Wait! We should go in pairs.” Kyoko said. “...Just in case.”

“Wh- nobody is going to kill _that_ fast.”

“Better safe than sorry.”

Taka and Leon would find Sayaka, Mondo would go alone to find Sakura and Aoi (they figured it’s ok to let him go alone since he’s strong and since he’s trying to find two people in the first place), Kyoko and Chihiro would find Yasuhiro, and Makoto and Toko would find Celeste and talk to her.

“Ughhh… why’d I have to get dragged into this…?” Toko groaned. “I’d rather be off looking for my princeeeee…”

Toko did not fail to perceive Makoto’s reaction.

“Byakuya. He’s my prince. Who else would it be?” She growled.

“I never asked…?” Makoto said, despite the fact that his facial expression was clearly asking it.

“Hmph. W-why’d you volunteer to pair up with me anyways. I’m u-ugly and disgusting…”

Makoto said nothing.

“Oh, I get it! It’s because you didn’t want to subject anyone else to my presence, so you took the fall f-for everyone else and decided to g-go with me.” She accused.

Makoto began to sweat. Guilty as charged.

They looked everywhere but couldn’t find Celeste. She must be in her room?

“Whatever. This was w-waste of time.” Toko complained. She entered her own room and slammed the door shut.

“Hey, wait a minute.” But it was useless.

Makoto decided to finish the rest of his mission alone. Just because Celeste was in her room doesn’t mean they couldn’t talk. He could still just press the doorbell. And so he pressed it.

The door opened barely a crack.

“Did you need something?”

Now Makoto was starting to feel self conscious. He wanted to just forget about asking her and run away. But he owed it to Taka, who was trying so hard to keep everyone together, to at least try. Even if the inevitable result would be failure.

“Uh, I was wondering if you were ok after that whole motive video thing…”

“I am fine. There is no need to worry about me. I have already resolved to acclimate myself to a peaceful life in this school. I will not take any drastic actions.”

Makoto couldn’t read her at all. Was it the truth? Was it a lie? In order to find out, he’d have to extend the conversation… but how?

Ah yes. He could pretend to actually be concerned about her. Which he wasn’t (Makoto felt kind of bad about that).

“I wasn’t asking for the sake of making sure you wouldn’t go kill anyone. That’s not what I was getting at. ” It totally was though. “Just… are _you_ ok?”

“I will not pretend that the motive video had no effect on me. However, I foresaw this coming to pass. So I am not in any significant distress. Now please, I would prefer to be alone now. I must busy myself with determining what will happen next.”

“So… you don’t want to talk about what you saw…?” Makoto said hopefully.

“No.” She shut the door.

“RIP.” Makoto shrugged and went off to look for the rest of his friends.

He also couldn’t help but wonder how much of what Celeste ‘foresaw’ was actually true and not just bluffing. It’s definitely easy to say ‘I saw it coming’ after the fact. And she doesn’t share anything she ‘sees’ because she would be charging money for it. It was all very suspicious. Then again, she was selected for Hope’s Peak, so there’s gotta be some truth to her abilities. But what kind of truth would that be? Makoto’s rather cynical imagination was thinking up a lot of ugly possibilities...

He was actually starting to get a little hungry. Checking the time, he realized it was rather close to noon. Maybe he could reconvene with everyone for lunch?

He walked in to hearing the sounds of Byakuya’s anger. And the smell of something burning.

“You two already _know_ that you are a hopeless mess at cooking. Why would you try again!? And you! You just made it worse!”

Makoto decided not to get involved with the suspicious black smoke coming out of the kitchen, and instead sat down at a table. The only person in the cafeteria was Toko, but…

“Hey twinky!”

It was actually the Colonel.

“What is it?”

“Fill me in on what’s going on! Why’re your crackhead buddies trying to burn down the school?”

“Uh, I think they’re just trying to cook. And failing, evidently.”

“Damn. Well it looks like at the very least hottie’s got it under control.”

Makoto glanced at the kitchen, where the sounds of Byakuya’s frustration emanated. It didn’t really sound like he had it under control at all.

“Say, this is the first time we’ve properly met, right?” Makoto asked.

“Well, if you aren’t counting the time you went totally bat-shit crazy, and the time when the fat-ass died, then yeah.” The Colonel twirled her hair.

“So… uh… what’s with the nickname?”

“You mean how I called you twinky back there? Well I can’t remember your real name! I’m only out and about half the time, so it’s too much effort to try remembering all your names. Much easier to just call you how you are.”

Makoto didn’t know how to feel about being called ‘twinky’. It wasn’t pleasant. But he was also curious to what some of Shou’s other nicknames would be.

Yasuhiro proudly walked out of the kitchen. “I apologize for the delay! Due to circumstances, your dish has been changed from lasagna to instant ramen. Please enjoy!”

“I dunno what you’re even talking about, weed man.” Shou rolled her eyes. “Sounds like Toko was expecting lasagna or whatever that is.”

He flinched a little at being called ‘weed man’.

Chihiro and Kyoko stumbled out of the kitchen, eyes watering. They were coughing too. Byakuya similarly looked very fussed. He held his hand over his mouth and was squinting with all his might.

“Ah, there’s the fourth stooge.” He said. “I’m glad you didn’t show up to ‘help’. The results would have been even more disastrous.”

Makoto wanted to argue but honestly his biting words were too truthful to refute.

They all ate a very depressing meal of just instant ramen.

“The FUCK were yall doing in the kitchen?” Mondo boomed as he walked in.

Sakura, Taka, and Leon trailed behind.

Byakuya just ‘hmphed’ to signify that he had nothing to do with it.

Yasuhiro spoke up. “We tried to make lasagna and failed!”

“And how, pray tell, do you fail _this_ badly?” Leon gestured towards the plumes of smoke.

“Uhhhhhh… don’t wanna talk about it.”

They all sat together at the table after making some more instant ramen for the rest.

“So! Status report! How did your attempts at reaching out go!?” Taka asked.

“Fission Mailed.” Makoto shrugged. “Celeste didn’t want to share a thing. Not that I expected anything else.”

“I’m still not ready to tell you anything about my video, but I’m not going to sit around brooding.” Yasuhiro said. “You can count on me, as always.”

“Excellent! As for us, Sayaka was not willing to share the contents of her video, but I do believe we helped her to feel better.” Taka explained.

“Aoi is resting in her room right now.” Sakura added. “I believe she feels much better about this whole deal now.”

“Oy, lats. What whole deal? Eyebrows and weed man mentioned a video. What’s this all about?” Shou picked her teeth.

“Oh, Monokuma gave us threatening videos.” Makoto answered. “Toko was also pretty upset about them… so go easy on her, will you?”

“Myeh. I’m around when she’s not, so it’s not like I can actually interact with her or anything. What is there to go easy on?”

“Fair enough.”

Everyone except Kyoko and Byakuya looked at Makoto confusedly, trying to figure out why he lied. Makoto was irked by this: he lied so Shou wouldn’t get interested in her own video. By lying and saying it was meant for Toko, Shou would not bother to watch it.

“Anyways.” Byakuya changed the topic. “If we’re done talking here, I’m leaving.”

He didn’t wait for a response though. He just left.

“So… are we still doing training today?” Sakura asked. “Aoi will not be joining us if so… but I this is not exactly the greatest time to-”

“Training!?” Taka shouted. “You say this like you’ve done it before! How come I was not invited!?”

Mondo gave him the stink eye. Makoto could guess why he wasn’t invited.

“As I was saying… This is not the best time to be training so carefreely. While it is good to exercise one’s body, I don’t think any of us are in the proper mindset for-”

“Now of all times is the perfect time for some training! It not only serves to harden the body, but also the mind! And, most importantly, our bonds as teammates!”

“We’re not teammates though…” Yasuhiro uselessly interjected.

“I can think of no better activity than training! We must do it! I insist!” Taka declared.

“Well, count me out. I’m going back to looking for clues.” Yasuhiro fiddled with something in his coat, but ended up bringing out nothing. He looked a little pained. “Anyways, see you all later.”

“Alright. He has a proper excuse. The rest of you! With me!” Taka charged from the cafeteria.

Leon and Shou discreetly stayed behind. Kyoko was also hesitant to move, but with some pleading from Chihiro, caved in.

After raiding the changing rooms near the pool for weights, they all convened at the gym. Byakuya was actually already there, doing some light exercises. When they entered, he clicked his tongue and left.

“What a grouch…” Mondo commented somewhat hypocritically.

The six of them got started with exercising. Makoto tried to use the time to think about what his next move would be, but eventually his muscles were in too much pain to think clearly. It was at this point that he seriously wondered whether training was a good idea or not.

Also, embarrassingly, he seemed to be struggling even more than Chihiro. Maybe it was just a difference in motivation? His heart definitely wasn’t in the training at all. Kyoko seemed to share his lack of enthusiasm (and lack of fitness).

“Why did I agree to do this?” Kyoko wheezed out.

“Same.” Makoto flopped on the ground. “I’m gonna crawl right back into my bed now…”

And so, the pair of them, much like wounded animals, slunk away back to their dens.

“Weak-ass pansies.” Mondo called after them.

\-------------------------

Makoto awoke suddenly. He wasn’t sure when he had fallen asleep but it was already 6 PM. Also, his muscles were in severe pain. He had to make a decision. Was it worth it to brave the pain in order to eat dinner? Or should he risk hunger in order to keep lying down?

Upon remembering how he was starving just a few days back, Makoto decided to eat. He rolled off the bed, crawled to his feet using the wall as support, and opened the door.

The table was already laid out with a variety of healthy foods. Fruit, oatmeal, eggs, etc... It looked like breakfast for dinner. Taka, Mondo, Chihiro, and Sakura were all munching away.

“Hey, Makoto! Sakura made all this nice healthy food for us! It’s supposed to help with fatigue.” Chihiro explained.

“Oh… I could use some of that.” Makoto sat down tiredly and grabbed a banana. “Where did everyone else go?”

“I’m not sure.” Sakura said. “But it’s still early. I think we can expect them to show up.”

And indeed, most everyone showed up to eat eventually, the only exception being Kyoko.

“Aoi! Are you feeling better now?”

“Yeah… thanks guys. Sorry for shutting myself away like that… I was just really upset by what I saw. It was my group members… I’m just so worried about them, I can’t-” She tripped up her words.

“We understand. We all do…” Sakura said solemnly.

Makoto zoned out as they continued the conversation without him. He could leave all the comforting to them. He was more concerned with where Kyoko had gone. Why wasn’t she here? Makoto couldn’t help but assume the worst. He had to go find her to allay his fears.

“Makoto, where are you going?” Chihiro tapped him on the shoulder.

“I’m gonna find Kyoko. I’m worried that something might have happened.” He admitted.

Chihiro’s eyes widened and she gulped. “I- I’ll go with you.”

They ran off to first check her room. If she wasn’t there, they’d comb the dorm building, then the school building.

Makoto rang the doorbell. Seconds passed, and there was no answer.

“M-maybe she’s just asleep?” Chihiro said hopefully.

Makoto rang again. Still no response.

“Come on… come on. Answer!” Makoto tapped his foot.

He rang another time. But nobody came…

“Y-you have to be in there, just fine, right?” His voice was starting to crack. “Why aren’t you here? Come on! Come on!”

He started pounding on the door out of frustration.

“M-Makoto, I don’t think she’s here…” Chihiro said tearfully. “Let’s go…”

“Nghhhh… fine. Let’s search the building. I can only hope that-”

And then the door swung open. And there she was, hunched over, hair sticking out in all sorts of directions, and squinting like she hadn’t seen light for the past few days.

“What is it? Jeez, give me a moment to get up, will you?”

“Wha- you’re alive!” Makoto gasped.

“Of course I’m alive! I haven’t left my room this entire time! Now unless you have something to say, can you leave me alone? I’m trying to sleep here.”

“Er, we were just worried about you…” Chihiro answered.

“Oh, thanks. If there’s nothing else… goodnight.” She slammed the door shut.

Makoto didn’t know whether to be relieved or annoyed.

“...I’m tired.” He finally said. “I think I’m gonna call it a night.”

“Oh… ok. Goodnight Makoto.” Chihiro bade him farewell, and he went back to the comfort of his bed.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t quite as comfortable as he had wished. His nerves were still running crazy, and he couldn’t help but wonder how the rest of his friends were doing. Taka was right in that they needed help, but Makoto didn’t really know how to help. Back patting and being told that it was ok doesn’t seem all that helpful. At least, Makoto didn’t think it would dissuade anyone from murder.

These kinds of pessimistic thoughts swirled around in his head for the next hour until he heard a knock at the door. Given that nighttime had not officially started, he felt safe to open the door.

“Makoto! How are you doing?” Taka greeted him.

“Me? I’m fine.”

“Ok, if you say so. I’m just checking, because you seemed a bit out of it at dinner! I just wanted to make sure everything was ok.”

“Oh, I’m just tired from that exercise we did. I don’t have as much stamina as you guys…”

“I understand! That makes complete sense! Well, forgive me for disturbing your rest, then!” He left, and Makoto gently closed the door and went back to thinking.

But again, he wasn’t making much headway in his thinking. Another half-hour passed, and he still couldn’t get to sleep, despite being dead tired. Maybe a quick walk would do him some good?

As he stepped out into the hallway, he made a point to stretch a little. It hurt a lot, but the pain was comforting, for some reason. A reminder that he was still alive, maybe? Or a mark of his effort during the day’s training? In any case, he decided to walk to the blocked off stairs that led to the third floor and back.

As he stared past the metal grate that closed off the staircase, he wondered what could lie beyond. Hopefully he’d never have to find out, and he’d be out of here way before then. But that was wishful thinking. He knew that rescue from the outside was something that probably would not happen, given the apparent power of their captor. The best way to get out would be to take the mastermind out from within. But how? That route also seemed impossible. Maybe the next floor would give him more hints…

But access to the next floor would mean the death of another student. No, another two students, more likely. And he’d have to risk his life in the class trial again. The monumental risk was not proportionate to the uncertain reward.

He walked back towards the stairs leading to the first floor, and saw Chihiro on the way up. She was looking at a piece of paper.

“Hey.” He said.

She jumped in surprise and stuffed the piece of paper into her pocket. “M-Makoto! W-were you just at the library, or…?”

“Nah. I’m just taking a walk. I couldn’t get to sleep.”

She seemed relieved. “Oh. Ok.” She kept going past him.

Makoto thoughtlessly walked to the bottom of the stairs, then stopped.

Why’d she ask if he was just at the library? It would make sense for him to be at the library, but why did she make a point to ask about it? And why was she going upstairs at a time like this? If she was just going for a walk, then she probably would have mentioned it, or asked him to come with. Actually, same as if she were going to the library. And she can’t swim, so she’s obviously not going to the pool. So… where was she going? The bathroom? She’s got a bathroom in her dorm room. There’s no purpose to going upstairs alone. Unless…

It had something to do with that note?

Makoto ran back upstairs, stumbling over himself, and charged towards the library, ignoring the pain roaring in his joints. He slammed the door open and-

Chihiro and Aoi flinched.

“U-um, Makoto? Did something happen?” Chihiro asked. She looked… nervous.

But Aoi looked even more nervous.

Makoto relaxed. “Phew… ok. No, nothing happened. And nothing is going to happen. Sorry for scaring you.” He turned around and left the room, closing the door very slowly behind him…

But before he fully closed the door, he whipped around and peeked back through.

“Unless…” He said furiously. “Aoi, show me what you’re hiding behind your back.”

Her tan skin went completely pale. Bullseye.

“Chihiro, listen to me. I want you to not look away from Aoi. Don’t look away. Now walk towards the sound of my voice. Slowly. Carefully. But _don’t_ take your eyes off of her.”

“Wh-what? Why?”

“Don’t ask questions. Just do it. Aoi. I’m giving you ten seconds to show me what’s behind your back, or I’m screaming for help. Surrender now, and we’ll forget all about this. Ok?”

Aoi was shaking, shivering, sweating. She was glancing around, as if searching for some invisible force that would save her from this situation.

“W-wait, Makoto! Why are you being like this?” Chihiro looked at him like he was crazy.

“ _Don’t look away!_ ” Makoto said angrily. “I’m starting the countdown now! Remember, if you just show me and drop it, I will forget about this and we can just go back! Ten!”

Aoi took a step backwards.

“Nine!”

She kept glancing.

“Eight!”

“Makoto! Why?”

“Think about what was on that note! Seven!”

“Wh- I- I-”

“Six!”

“Sorry Aoi, I know I’m supposed to be keeping it a secret, but-!”

“Five!”

“She- she just wants my help with-”

“Four!”

“-her reading comprehension!”

“No, she doesn’t! Think a little! Three!”

“Why would she lie about that!?”

“Two!”

There was a clatter as Aoi dropped the object she was holding.

A knife.

“Good. Very good.” Makoto desperately tried to keep his voice steady. It was just a hunch based on circumstantial evidence and body language, but his hunch happened to be completely on the money. He couldn’t believe he had actually gotten it right. “As I said… we’ll forget about this. Alright? I know you’re scared and all, but we can’t go killing each other.”

As he said this, he scooped up the knife himself, holding it gingerly by the blade.

“I’ll take this back to the kitchen. Ok? Now come on. Let’s go downstairs.”

Makoto escorted the similarly shell shocked Chihiro and Aoi down the stairs. He directed Aoi to her room.

“Chihiro, stay here and watch the door, will you?”

She nodded lifelessly.

Makoto moved as quickly as he dared with the knife in his hands. He returned it to the kitchen, concerning and shocking everyone who still lingered in the cafeteria, then ran to the storage room and grabbed a roll of duct tape.

Returning to Aoi’s door, he started taping the door frame up as much as he could.

“Makoto! What are you doing!?” Taka screamed.

He looked back at him, glowering. “Get everyone. We need to talk.”

Soon, Taka had gathered everyone (sans Aoi) in the cafeteria. Kyoko still looked as if she had recently been run over by a pack of wild monkeys, but she was awake, at least.

“Makoto! You will explain your delinquent behavior this very instant! Running with a knife, taping up Aoi’s door… If you do not have a proper explanation, then I must place you under house arrest!” Taka said angrily.

“Chihiro. Can we see that note you got?” Makoto asked. “And no keeping it secret anymore. You know that it needs to come out.”

She passed it out onto the table.

Dear Chihiro,  
I have a kind of personal request for you. You see, I’m actually not a great reader or writer, so I was hoping you could tutor me a little! But this is kind of an embarrassing subject for me, and I’d like to keep it a secret from everyone else, ok? If you’re ok with it, can you meet me in the library at 8:30 today? I already have a few things in mind that I need some help reading. I’m so excited to increase my vocabulary with you! Oh, sorry, assuming you decide to accept. Remember, please keep it a secret from everyone! I don’t want anyone knowing. I hope to see you there!

From, Aoi

“Looks like a note someone might hand out to arrange a murder.” Byakuya commented. “Is that why Aoi is locked up in her room now?”

“You hit the nail on the head.” Makoto said. “Taka, that knife you saw me running with… I took it from Aoi. I was lucky enough to happen to pass by, and I stopped her from doing… whatever it was she was going to do with that knife.”

Silence.

“Hm, so someone actually tried to do it.” Byakuya noted. “Good on you, for deciding to tape her door closed. And quite lucky for Chihiro. She’d be dead if you didn’t happen to be up there. Very lucky indeed.”

“Wait a moment!” Taka said incredulously. “Chihiro! Is this true? This must be a joke!”

Chihiro whispered. “It’s true…”

“No way… No way! This can’t be true! We- we were getting along so well, how could she-”

“Chill, bro!” Mondo grabbed his shoulders. “What happened happened. This shit is unbelievable, but we’ve got two people saying it. It’s true. We’ve just gotta… figure out what to do from here.”

Yasuhiro seemed deep in thought, but then he shook his head as if to rid himself of whatever thoughts he was occupied with. “Dude, Aoi though? Of all people?”

“I seem to recall her being the main suspect during Hifumi’s murder.” Celeste said neutrally.

“So we’ve found our killer?” Leon said sadly.

“Not necessarily.” Yasuhiro shook his head.

“I think that the motive Monokuma gave us hit her pretty hard. She told us that it was her group members who were used as a motive? I’ve heard that pop groups can be as close as families sometimes.” Makoto noted. “There’s a good chance she only decided to escape after that. Which means she isn’t necessarily the one who set the trap that killed Hifumi.”

“Exactly. Well, actually, I wasn’t paying enough attention to know how she reacted to the motive, but yeah.” Yasuhiro agreed. “But uh… what do we do now?”

“I was hoping you could answer that.”

“Huh? Oh, uh.” He rubbed his temples. “Sorry, eggs. I’m not really feeling great right now, and-”

“The answer is obvious. We lock her up, as Makoto has done, only letting her out to eat. She has demonstrated that she is a danger to us all. So we cannot let her run free.” Byakuya interjected. “Alternatively, we could simply break both of her arms. That would ensure she doesn’t get up to anything dangerous.”

“How can you even say such a violent thing?” Taka demanded.

“Because the situation demands it. Do you want someone who just attempted murder to walk among us? I don’t. I’m simply listing ways of solving our problem.”

“...I can do it.” Sakura spoke. Her eyes were dark in a mixture of emotions that Makoto couldn’t quite make out. “I can act as her escort. To make sure she doesn’t go anywhere. Or… do anything.”

“Like before, with Hifumi? Good idea.” Yasuhiro nodded.

“W-wait, you’re her friend though, aren’t you?” Toko argued. Looks like she swapped back from Shou. “Who’s to say you won’t give her a bunch of u-undeserved liberties!?”

“I will not.” Sakura said with a menacing aura that stifled the rest of the room. “Nobody is as disappointed in her as I am… I will make sure to set her back on the right path.”

Nobody dared to challenge her claim.

“I guess we’ll leave it to Sakura then.” Yasuhiro said.

“Meeting adjourned, then?” Celeste asked.

“I guess…”

As people got up to leave, Makoto saw Taka talking to Sayaka, who looked more shocked than ever. Hopefully she’d be ok. She normally was a bit more talkative, but the motive seemed to have done a number on her.

Which is something Makoto had to take into account…

As he walked back to his room, Chihiro intercepted him.

“Um… thank you.”

“For what?”

“For saving my life, of course. I… I just never imagined that she’d try to kill me. I’m sorry. I should have realized.”

“It’s not your fault, alright? And…” He didn’t quite believe it himself, but he forced himself to say it, “...it’s not Aoi’s fault either. It’s Monokuma’s fault. Only his. Just… learn from this experience and be more careful, yeah?”

Chihiro nodded. “One more thing, Makoto…”

“Hm?”

“You told Aoi that if she revealed what she was holding, you wouldn’t tell anyone. But…”

“That? That was a lie to get her to give up. By saying that, I presented an opportunity for her to back out without consequences.”

“Y-you lied to her…?”

“Of course I did. If I handled that situation any worse, she might have freaked out and stabbed you anyways, despite the fact that I was watching. I needed to get her to relax, somehow. To give her an easy, appealing option.”

“Oh… ok… well, thanks, Makoto. But, um… uh, nothing.” She went to her room.

Why was she getting on his case about lying? She seemed actually bothered by it. Come on, it was just a necessary evil for the greater good. There was nothing wrong with that, right?

Makoto was thoroughly tired now. He had no time to self-reflect in his bed, because the instant he touched it, he fell asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A lot of stuff happened in this chapter, both on and off-screen. There's definitely a bunch of interesting moments I'd like to touch on, but I'm going to restrain myself and leave it up to you to think about it on your own.
> 
> But for any of you that are curious, here's how Colonel Shou refers to all the different characters. I just thought this up on the fly, and Shou is also a moody person, so the names might change or be altered in the future.
> 
> Makoto - Twinky  
> Kiyotaka - Eyebrows  
> Byakuya - Hottie (and a bunch of other stuff)  
> Mondo - Biceps  
> Leon - Red  
> Hifumi - Fat-ass  
> Yasuhiro - Weed Man  
> Chihiro - Rodent  
> Sayaka - True Blue (Blue for short)  
> Kyoko - Ghosty  
> Aoi - Boobs  
> Toko - Toko  
> Sakura - Lats (short for Latissimus Dorsi)  
> Celeste - Goth Girl


	15. Chapter 2: Despair Done Right - Daily Life Part 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I'll let this chapter speak for itself.

Makoto slept kind of late.

Which is why he wasn’t prepared when he heard the announcement.

_♪Ding Dong Bing Bong♪_

“A body has been discovered! Everyone, please report to the storage room!”

No way. But he just stopped Aoi from- Arrrrggghhh!!!!!

Makoto held his head in his hands. He had relaxed. He had let his guard down. He thought that the danger had passed, since he had luckily been able to defuse it. But it was nothing but wishful thinking. There was no logic that dictated that people could not attempt murders so close to one another.

I should have been able to stop it, however it happened, I should have paid closer attention to everyone, so that I could have dissuaded them from-

It’s too late… Just go… See who died… The best you can do now is get revenge.

He ran out into the hall and saw Leon.

“Did you hear the announcement?” He said fearfully.

Makoto just nodded. “Come on. Let’s go.”

They ran to the storage room, where they saw the rest of the group. He couldn’t see the body from where he was: he was too short to see past everyone.

“Get out of the way! Wh-who died?” He shoved his way past Celeste, Taka, Chihiro…

**Yasuhiro Hagakure, the Ultimate Detective** lay slumped against the wall. He would have almost looked peaceful, if it weren’t for the massive bloodstain covering his front, and the blood dried against his temple.

Makoto paled. How could this be? Yasuhiro? Dead? He was smarter and more alert than anyone! How could this have happened to him? 

“Well. If you were only willing to pay the fee…” Celeste started.

“Now is **not** the time.” Kyoko spat venomously.

Byakuya spoke up. “I’m… not quite sure what to say. But we can mourn later. We must find the one who did this. Our survival depends on it.”

That was right. No matter how much he wanted to avert his eyes from reality, he had to face it head on. He had to help save everyone again.

Excepting the killer. They could burn in hell.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this was an extremely short chapter. And for a reason too! I prefer separating my daily life and investigation chapters from each other, not just for chapter titles, but for stylistic purposes too. Also, I separated this chapter from the last one because it made perfect sense to end the chapter at the end of the day. Basically, I was trying to ambush you guys with this. Did it work? Were you surprised at all? Were you surprised by the timing of the killing? The victim? Perhaps I'm actually very predictable, and it's neither? I'd like to hear your thoughts.
> 
> Anyways, writing an investigation is tough. I imagine that the next part will take quite a while. But I'll probably release the investigation and trial very close to each other. This is because I like to fact check between the two to make absolutely sure I'm not leaving any plot holes or loose ends. That would be embarrassing if it did happen! (But feel free to call me out if it does happen.)


	16. Chapter 2: Despair Done Right - Investigation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The investigation for the death of Yasuhiro Hagakure starts.

Monokuma strolled into the storage room, shaking his mechanical hips in a mock sexy fashion.

“Oh my! How despairful! Everyone’s favorite detective is dead! Hey, did you know he’s actually a few years older than the rest of you? Yup, he got held back a couple times. But if any of you were thinking of him as the derpy but reliable older brother type, that’s why! He was actually older than you!”

“Shut up.” Leon told him.

“Awwww, don’t you want to learn more about your dead friend? Actually, I guess you don’t! It makes complete sense! I mean, he’s dead now, so who cares?”

“I thought I told you to shut up.”

“So you’re changing your mind? You do want to hear more about him…?”

“That’s not what he’s saying. He just doesn’t want to listen to your fucking disgusting voice anymore.” Mondo said.

“Oh… that makes me saaaaad. I can tell when I’m not wanted. Goodbye forever…”

Makoto held out his hand. “Wait, what about the Monokuma File?”

“Oh? You remembered! I’m so so proud of you, egg boy! But just because you want it doesn’t mean I’ll just give it to you. Because you guys were being mean to me! So I want an apology. Also, I want you to grovel on the ground too. If you do that, I _might_ just give you the file!”

“Enough jerking us around. Give us the file. Or else _people_ will get bored.” Makoto held out his hand.

“Wha- why so grouchy?” Monokuma pouted.

“Given that we’re quite possibly all going to die within the next couple of hours, forgive me if I’m a little bit irritable. Now give us the file.” Makoto snarled.

“Fine, fine. Wouldn’t want _people_ to get bored, right?” Monokuma rolled his eyes (wait, how’s that even possible?) and threw a stack of files on the ground.

Everyone checked the files.

Victim: Yasuhiro Hagakure, Ultimate Detective  
Details: The victim’s body was found in the storage room. The time of death was around 2:00 AM. The victim died from blood loss. 

“It says the victim died from blood loss… that’s not very specific. He’s got at least two wounds that I can see.” Kyoko observed. “Though it seems pretty obvious that whatever caused him to bleed from the front is what killed him.”

Makoto squatted next to his friend’s body. This… well, it was terrible. But he had to suck it up and investigate. “Looks like he has a single very small hole poked in his chest. Around where the heart is. Maybe that’s what killed him? He’s also bleeding from the head. Maybe he was first hit in the head, and then stabbed through the heart? It would explain why he bled so much from such a small wound.”

“If that’s the case, I wonder where the weapon is. Weapons, actually.” Kyoko pondered.

“As before, we sweep the entire school. Take note of anything that’s out of place. Since the murder occurred in the middle of the night, evidence could be hidden almost anywhere. Everyone pair up. Nobody wanders around alone.” Byakuya ordered. 

“But we’d cover more ground if we-”

“And we’d give the culprit an opportunity to falsify or destroy evidence.” Byakuya interrupted. “I’m more afraid of the former, personally. Now, do you have your pairs?”

People did not have their pairs: nobody wanted to pair up with Celeste, understandably.

Byakuya let out a long sigh. “Fine. I’ll pair you up for you. Kyoko, Chihiro, you go together to the school building, first floor. I kind of doubt anything is there, but I have confidence that you’ll investigate efficiently. I guess Leon and Mondo can go investigate the second floor. Better to have two people of the same gender investigate the pool. Taka, Sayaka, you two stay right here. I’ll have you go to confirm that certain items in the storage have been disturbed. So wait for my orders. Sakura, Aoi, I suppose the two of you can also investigate the second floor, because something may be in the girl’s locker room. And keep an eye on Aoi, will you? Finally, Makoto, take Celeste with you and investigate the dorm building. Make sure to comb the personal rooms thoroughly.”

“Wait a minute! You can’t just investigate our rooms! There’s personal stuff in there!” Leon argued.

“Mhm. Very personal, such as incriminating evidence.” Byakuya retorted. “Shou, you’re here with me.”

“Oooooooh. Is hottie here sending me some signals? Or-”

“You have experience with dead bodies that the rest of us do not. There is no other reason.”

Shou drooped a little but then just shrugged it off.

“Alright, we don’t know how much time we have. Get to it.” Byakuya waved everyone away.

Makoto was very reluctant to leave Yasuhiro behind, but he had to play his role in the investigation. Hopefully Byakuya would come up with enough evidence.

\--------------------------

Makoto visited each room one by one. Celeste simply stood by and did nothing as he searched.

“Hey, you wanna, I dunno, give me a hand here or something? You know that we all die if we fail. That includes you.”

“Given that I have already foreseen the outcome of this trial, I see no need.” She twirled her hair.

“Right, right. So, mind telling me who the culprit is?” Makoto rolled his eyes.

“Why, it is you.” She said unflinchingly.

“Wha- no, it’s not!” Makoto was confused. Was that supposed to be a joke? Because it was a bad one. Or did she seriously believe that he killed Yasuhiro?

“That was merely a jest. I know that it is not you. But I will not tell you who it is. It may influence the outcome of the trial, and I’d prefer for it to end the way that I foresaw.”

Jest or no, that comment was definitely not appreciated. “Fine, fine, but if we’re in a pickle, then how about you tell us, huh?”

“There will be no ‘pickle’.”

Makoto then used his brain a bit: from Celeste’s perspective, there were two major possibilities that he saw. One, Celeste is a huge fraud and she actually has no idea what she’s talking about. Two, she actually knows, but if she were to take an active stance and start outing people, she would get targeted by murderers. Which would be either deadly at worst or inconvenient at best. So not revealing the killer would make sense either way.

Or… there’s a third option. Three, she’s the killer.

Makoto, as terrible as it is, kind of hoped that option three was the case.

Nothing too out of the ordinary was in most of the rooms. Aoi’s in particular was a complete mess. The bed in particular was covered in emptied donut boxes. Makoto idly wondered whether her tantrum was a result of the video or a result of her murder plan being foiled. Makoto also took note that her sewing kit (which had been placed in the room of every girl) was still completely sealed, much like everyone else. The sole exception was Sayaka: her kit was opened, but the contents were all clearly accounted for inside her room. A little sewing project lay unfinished on her dresser, and the sewing needle was snugly tucked inside of it. 

Yasuhiro was probably killed by a needle… but if he was, it didn’t come from anyone’s rooms. It wasn’t going to be that easy.

Makoto glanced over at Celeste. How to phrase this…?

“Hey, would you mind if you gave me your sewing kit?” He said bluntly.

“Hm? Why? Why do you need _my_ kit in particular?” She asked.

“I don’t. But I’m not going to just steal a kit from anyone, and you’re the only person I can ask right now…”

“Fine. You may have it. I have no interest in sewing.” She walked off towards her room. Makoto pursued quickly: he didn’t want to lose sight of her.

She retrieved the kit. “Now what? Will you kill me with it?” She smiled.

“That’s not funny.” Makoto ripped the kit open and looked through the contents. Huh. Monokuma included a diagram of the human body, complete with pressure points that reveal exactly where to stab in order to do the most damage.

Makoto pocketed the kit. As evidence. He had no plans to actually use it.

“Uh, Monokuma, if you’re listening, can you confirm something for me?” Makoto asked.

Monokuma dropped in. “Ok, ok, make it snappy though.”

“Are all the sewing kits in the rooms identical?”

“Yup, they’re all identical. Is that all? If so, leave me alone, I’m busy redecorating the trial room.” Monokuma left.

“So? Have you figured out who the culprit is?” Celeste asked in a tone that made it very hard to tell if she was mocking him or not.

Makoto decided not to dignify her with an answer.

He continued searching the rooms, keeping an eye on Celeste just in case she tried to take anything. She didn’t, though, so his paranoia was for nothing.

Now this was strange. He glanced over at Celeste, who was, as usual, not paying any attention. Which was a good thing, in this case. A toolkit was in Chihiro’s room. It was unopened, just like everyone else so far, but why would Chihiro have a toolkit? Weren’t the girls supposed to have sewing kits instead of tool kits? Would Monokuma make a dumb mistake like that? Or…

Makoto checked the bathroom to make sure. To his surprise, it had no lock…

Quite shocking, but it had nothing to do with the case. Probably. He wanted to ask Monokuma some questions, but he’d be prying into Chihiro’s privacy. Also, he definitely couldn’t talk about it with Celeste around. So… he’d keep this a secret for the time being.

Wait, they had checked the rooms during the first killing. Who checked Chihiro’s room? Makoto was sure that he didn’t, but then who did? They almost certainly noticed as well. But Makoto couldn’t remember who it was.

Makoto flicked himself in the head. “Don’t get distracted. Focus.” He mumbled under his breath.

In Toko’s room, he found a bunch of metal shavings in the trash can. He’d have to follow up on that at some point, but nothing else was out of the ordinary in her room.

Finally, he got to his own room. “Celeste, you do the investigating here.”

“Sigh… you know for a fact that your room has no relevance to the crime. I don’t see why I should investigate at all.” She tutted.

“Well, that’s true.” Makoto admitted. “But you don’t know that for sure. So why not investigate?”

“But Makoto, I _do_ know that for sure. So there’s no need.”

It was Makoto’s turn to sigh. He didn’t know what to make of her ‘all-seeing’ act she was putting on.

“Alright, let’s move on then. We’ve got other rooms to investigate.”

The garbage room had absolutely nothing in it. Makoto still held onto the garbage key, and he also hadn’t taken it out in a little while. The bathhouse was similarly devoid of any clues. The cafeteria was closed at night, so Makoto expected to find nothing there either, and his expectations did not betray him. But out in the hall, he found a mirror lying on the ground, with a bit of tape attached to it. Why was it sitting so conspicuously out in the open? Maybe it was originally attached to something?

Makoto looked around for surfaces where it could have been attached, and discovered adhesive traces on the wall opposite the storage room. It was probably safe to say the mirror was stuck there, but either was removed or fell off. The latter, most likely. The real question was why it ever was there in the first place. It wasn’t there when he went to bed last night, so it was probably set up in the night as part of the murder plot. But why was a mirror needed on this particular wall? And why did it just fall off?

He didn’t have much more time to ponder this, as the PA system came to life.

“Aaannnd that’s all the time you get, folks! Head on over to the red doors and we can get the fun started!” Monokuma said gleefully.

Makoto exchanged a look with Celeste in an attempt to convey his annoyance at the fact they had gotten so little time to investigate, but she was completely unresponsive.

“...Whatever. Let’s just go.”

They were among the first to arrive at the red door.

“Did you find anything?” Byakuya asked Makoto.

“I did find one thing… and I took note of a few other things that may or may not be related. But what about you?”

“Hmmm. As you might imagine, there were a good amount of clues at the scene. Since I trust that you’ll be able to make good use of this information, allow me to fill you in…”

\--------------------------

Byakuya turned to the body after seeing everyone out of the room. He had to admit that he was a little shocked to see Yasuhiro of all people dead. But getting all surprised was not going to answer any of his questions. He needed to focus.

First, he investigated the wound. Like Makoto had pointed out before he left, there was a single circular wound on his chest. Thin, like it was from a needle.

“Wowee! I bet the killer really knew what they were doing. It was just a single stab, right in the heart. Angled perfectly to go around the sternum and everything. And seeing as there’s no hole in his clothes, it was obviously deliberate. Musta knocked him out and then finished him off like this.”

Shou was already being useful.

“Hmm. You two. According to the inventory we made with Yasuhiro, there are needles located in this storage room. Go find them.” Byakuya ordered.

“Affirmative!” Taka saluted, grabbed Sayaka, and marched off.

It was nice to have such an obedient gofer to do the dirty work.

“Now, let’s check out his other wound.” Byakuya said.

“Righto, looks like a classic blunt weapon. From the shape of the wound, I’d guess it came from something like a bat. But to be sure, I’d need to see the actual weapon and match it up. Whee! This murder investigation thing is actually kinda fun! I don’t get to play with corpses that often!”

Off putting.

“Did the two of you hear that? There should be bats in here as well. Find them!”

“Got it!”

Well, the idea that he was knocked out and then stabbed through the heart seems simple enough. But why was Yasuhiro in the storage room in the middle of the night in the first place? It was uncharacteristic of him. Byakuya searched through his clothes some more but couldn’t find any note or anything calling him out. He did find a few other things though, but they could wait for later.

Of course not. If he had gotten a note from the killer, then the killer would have taken it off his corpse… and then disposed of it…? No, actually, they couldn’t have, not completely, since the incinerator was privy only to the one who held the key. Which means that the culprit still held the note?

Byakuya looked over towards Taka and Sayaka, who had returned with a box full of needles and a wooden bat.

“Shou, please look at these weapons.”

Shou took out the bat and placed it against Yasuhiro’s head. “Ayup! That’s the one! A bat just like this one was what conked him! And look at these needles… hm! Hey, this one is covered in blood! It was buried all sneaky like at the bottom of the pile!”

“Ah!” Taka flinched. “H-how terrible!”

Sayaka looked like she might be sick.

“If you are going to throw up over a simple bloodied needle… then I don’t know what to say.” Byakuya tutted.

“Well, I just- it’s a bit shocking that I was carrying around _the_ murder weapon right there without even realizing it.” Taka explained.

Shou unceremoniously jammed the needle into Yasuhiro’s already existing wound.

Sayaka made a little noise.

“Yup. This is the one.” Shou nodded. “The exact needle. Damn, this is fun.” She pulled it back out. It barely seemed any more bloodied than it was before...

Byakuya directed his attention to the items he could find on Yasuhiro. A pipe and a matchbook. Was Yasuhiro planning on doing some smoking in the middle of the night? Maybe that’s why he had come out to the storage room.

“WEED!” Shou screamed. “There’s weed in this pipe. I’d know that smell anywhere.”

“W-weed!? You mean like… marijuana? But that’s-” Taka started.

“I’m more concerned with how he got his hands on this while inside the school. The only way he could have gotten his hands on it is because of Monokuma, but maybe there’s some other way that we don’t yet know about.” Byakuya commented.

“I told yall he was weed man.” Shou shrugged. “You should have taken me more literally. I knew he smoked it. I knew it.”

Byakuya just rolled his eyes and added it to the pile of evidence.

“Another thing. I think we should conduct body searches. The culprit may be trying to hide something on their personage.”

“What?” Taka looked a little freaked by this.

“Ooh, ooh, I’m good at those!” Shou jumped up and down.

“Fine… seeing as you are the Ultimate Soldier, I suppose it’s probably alright for you to conduct the body searches. However, you will have to get someone to search you.”

“I’m fine with _you_ doing that.” 

“And I’m not. Sayaka, you do it.”

“H-huh?”

“Are you paying any attention at all? We’re doing a body search. You’ll be in charge of searching Shou here.”

She paled. “U-um… alright…” She was very reasonably not excited about having to search Shou.

Everyone took turns getting searched, and the only things that were found were normal things like e-Handbooks, pencils and notepads, and the like. However, Shou was holding a pair of suspiciously sharp scissors.

“Why do you have these?” Taka’s voice cracked.

“Eh, they’re my favorite weapon. A little odd, I know, but it’s just for self defense! Honest!” Shou looked totally unperturbed by their discovery.

“Wait, I never saw any pairs of scissors like this. How did you get these?”

“I made em. Took a normal pair of scissors and carved them up! It’s a hobby of mine! Kinda like wood carving, but I’m carving metal instead.”

...scary.

“This is quite disturbing, but does it have anything to do with our current case?” Taka asked.

“I don’t believe so. Hiro’s wounds don’t match at all with the scissors. Even I can tell that much.” Byakuya said. “But it’s not like we can ignore these either. I’ll be taking custody of them.”

Shou looked annoyed at first, but then softened. “Alrrriiiiigggghhhtttt. As long as it’s you, hottie.” They went back to fiddling with the pipe, sniffing it from time to time.

At that point, the PA system activated.

\--------------------------

“And that’s what we found.” Byakuya finished.

“Ugh… those are useful clues but I don’t think it brings us any closer to the culprit.” Makoto answered.

Everyone had arrived now. Mondo was dripping with water, and Kyoko held onto a mildly bloodied bat.

“Everyone into the elevator, if you please!” Monokuma’s voice commanded.

It was once again time for a class trial.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's a quick list of important things, to help you all keep track of things better.
> 
> Abridged Autopsy - Yasuhiro was stabbed through the heart with a needle after having been knocked out by a wood bat.  
> Bloody Needle - What apparently killed Yasuhiro. It was found buried in a box of similar needles.  
> Bloody Bat - Kyoko was carrying a bat with her. It's probably what was used on Yasuhiro. Where did she find it?  
> Dripping Mondo - Mondo is covered in water. Why's that?  
> Tape and Mirror - A small hand mirror with tape attached was found out in the hall. The wall opposite the storage room showed signs of having adhesives stuck to it.  
> Weed - Yasuhiro was carrying a pipe full of marijuana and a matchbox.  
> Sewing Kits - Only Sayaka's sewing kit was opened, but all the needles were fully accounted for. The rest were sealed.  
> Shou's Scissors - Shou was found carrying a pair of sharp scissors that she apparently made herself. Additionally, Makoto found metal shavings in her trash can.  
> Celeste's Silence - Celeste doesn't want to say a thing about the culprit, despite claiming she knows who it is.  
> Unused Incinerator - Makoto used the incinerator some days ago, but never again. The culprit would not have been able to get rid of evidence in that way.
> 
> I should say that there's not quite enough to put it all together just yet, but maybe you could make some guesses?
> 
> As always, I hope you're enjoying things. Designing a trial is tough and this is my first time doing a 'normal' trial. Hopefully it turns out good! Also, it took me quite a while to get this chapter out. Blame DMC V! I've been grinding out Bloody Palace for the past couple days and I didn't spend as much time writing as I should have. My bad!


	17. Chapter 2: Despair Done Right - Trial

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The second class trial begins (and ends).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW for somewhat sensitive talk about marijuana and rehabilitation. Apologies in advance for any misinformation. I tried to keep it vague so that I didn't write anything blatantly wrong, but seeing as I have no experience with the topic and very limited knowledge, there's always a chance that I've done something terribly misrepresentative. If so, I'm sorry.
> 
> Also TW for the execution, it's pretty gnarly. But this is a DR fic so you'd better be prepared.

As everyone took their places at the podiums, Makoto looked directly across from him and saw Yasuhiro’s X’ed out portrait. He pinched the bridge of his nose and grimaced. It wasn’t fair, having to see him like that…

“Let's begin with a basic explanation of the class trial! Your votes will determine the results. If you can figure out "whodunnit" then only they will receive punishment. But if you pick the wrong one... then I'll punish everyone besides the blackened, and the one that deceived everyone else will graduate!” Monokuma said.

“You said the exact same thing last time.” Celeste pointed out.

“No, not quite! Last time, I said ‘So, your votes will determine the results’. This time, I got rid of the ‘So’!” Monokuma said smugly.

“Nobody cares. Let’s get on with it.” Leon slammed his desk.

“Before we begin in proper, I’d like to conduct body searches.” Byakuya said. “There’s a chance that Yasuhiro was given a note calling him out to the storage room. The culprit most likely took that note off of him when they killed him. So…”

“Nah, that shit ain’t necessary.” Mondo interrupted. “Since we’ve got the note right here.” He held up a soggy sheet of paper. The writing was completely illegible, the ink bleeding everywhere.

“Had to go swimming to get this shit. Fucked up my hair. And I’m gonna be smelling like chlorine for a while.” He groaned.

“So, the note was found in the pool. A fine way to get rid of it, given that every other option would have left us a chance to figure out who sent it.” Byakuya concluded.

“With that out of the way, can we get started with the basics?” Kyoko asked. “Like his cause of death, other injuries, objects at the scene, and whatnot…”

“Fine. Best to get all that out of the way, I guess…” Byakuya looked a little uninterested in the idea of recapping.

Maybe he should have saved his recap for the trial room instead of giving it exclusively to Makoto beforehand…

“Ooh, ooh, let me do it! I wanna do it! I’ll explain it all!” Shou raised their hand excitedly.

“Alright, do as you please.”

“Alrighty! Whoo hoo! So first, weed man was killed by getting stabbed through the heart with this here needle.” She held up the bloody needle they had found. “It was an expert stab too! Angled to go around the sternum and ribcage and everything. They knew what they were doing!”

“Of course, making a stab like that is pretty much impossible if the victim is still capable of resisting, so weed man was knocked out first. That much is obvious! He was knocked out by a bat, like that one over there.” Shou pointed at the bat Kyoko was holding.

“If anyone wants to know, I found this in the gym, on the stage, behind some curtains.” Kyoko added.

“Since it’s all covered in blood, I bet that it’s the weapon that clonked weed man!” Shou laughed. “Anyways, what else is there to talk about? Oh right, the fact that weed man had _WEED!_ ”

“Uhhh… is that a joke, or…?” Leon wondered aloud.

“Unfortunately, no, it is not.” Byakuya confirmed. “Look at this pipe here. It, alongside this matchbook, were found inside Yasuhiro’s coat pocket. And inside this pipe…”

He retrieved some leaves.

“Marijuana. Not sure how he got a hold of it in here, but the smell is unmistakable. At least that’s what Shou claims.”

“Wh-what the fuck?!?” Mondo recoiled. “I may be a delinquent motherfucker, but even I wouldn’t do drugs and shit! For one, my trainer would kill me, but real talk, you don’t do that shit!”

“Curious.” Sakura simply said. “But is there any relevance to the murder?”

“I’m not sure. But if there is any relevance, it’s likely just that he was out in the middle of the night for a smoke.” Byakuya said. “I think we can set this aside for now. We should try to figure out how exactly he was killed first.”

“Hey, I’ve been meaning to ask, we know where we found the bat, but where’d you find that bloody needle?” Leon asked. “Colonel over there never told us.”

“We found it mixed in with the rest of the needles in the storage room.” Byakuya said. “It was buried at the bottom deliberately.”

“So we can assume the culprit was hiding the evidence on purpose. They put the needle with the rest of the needles, the bat hidden in the gym on the stage, and the note in the swimming pool. They really spread the evidence out. A piece was on every single floor.” Kyoko said.

“I don’t really think there’s any big meaning behind it: they probably just hoped we might miss some of the evidence because we didn’t investigate thoroughly enough. I mean, they just killed Yasuhiro. Perhaps they were hoping the investigation wouldn’t go nearly as smoothly without him?” Makoto said.

“Actually… do you think Yasuhiro was targeted because of that in particular?” Chihiro spoke up.

“Of course. I mean, there’s a note that supposedly called him out and everything. But what I’m curious about is why he took the bait in the first place.” Byakuya put his finger to his chin. “You see, if I were to receive a note that asked me to go out in the middle of the night, I would not go. Period.”

“Yeah… I think I’d probably be too scared to go either…” Chihiro admitted.

“Really? What if the note was from me?” Makoto suddenly blurted.

“H-huh? Well, th-then, maybe I would…”

“Why don’t we take that logic and apply it to Yasuhiro?” Makoto said. “I hate where this is going, but you have to admit that it’s the most likely possibility. Someone that Yasuhiro _trusted_ murdered him. And that someone is...”

“You.” Byakuya said off-handedly. “Or maybe Chihiro.”

“Or me.” Kyoko suggested. “But I didn’t do it. Or you for that matter, Byakuya. I hope you didn’t do anything strange with the evidence while you were at the scene…”

“I kept a reeeaaal good eye on him, ghosty! He never once did anything bad! Nope, not my sparkling prince!” Shou grinned.

“Also, I do not believe Yasuhiro would trust me. Would any of you?”

“I would.” Makoto said without thinking.

“Uh… me too…” Chihiro said.

“Honestly…? You’ve been carrying us through these trials so far, and despite your shitty attitude, you really do know what’s up. I guess I could trust you.” Leon said.

There were some nods of agreement.

“Of course I’d trust you, hottie! Hot men never lie!”

Byakuya looked genuinely concerned. “I… cannot believe you guys. You are far too trusting. Surely you can see that I am one of the least trustworthy ones here.”

“Guys, can we get back on topic?” Makoto said. He wasn’t too keen on having this conversation right now. “This narrows the list a little bit, but not too much. And I don’t think we can really say for sure who Yasuhiro trusted or not. So let’s just analyse what we have.”

“Right… I wanted to say… who’s to say that Yasuhiro was really attacked in the storage room? I remember that one… incident… where his body was moved before. Maybe this is similar?” Taka said.

“I think we can pretty safely say he was indeed attacked in the storage room.” Byakuya shrugged. “Unless any of you found traces of blood or cleaning materials being used at any other location?”

A brief silence.

“Yeah, I mean, it would make sense.” Makoto looked off to the side in thought. “Why move the body at all? It seems like a waste of time and effort to me. Nothing about the scene in particular dictates that his body should need to be moved.”

“So let’s summarize for a second here…” Kyoko held up her hands. “Yasuhiro got a note from someone he trusted telling him to go to the storage room for… whatever reason.”

“Perhaps it related to his investigation concerning the mastermind behind Hifumi’s death? I can see why he might believe a secret meeting would be necessary in that regard. It would be to keep the killer from becoming suspicious.” Byakuya interrupted.

“Er, yeah, maybe. Anyways, the person who called him out then hit him on the head with a bat and stabbed him through the heart.”

“So… they hit him with a bat. Seems unlikely, though?” Chihiro said.

“Why’s that?” Kyoko asked.

“I mean, he was planning to go see someone. And even in the darkness, it’d be easy to make out the silhouette of a bat. He’d be actively looking for a person, and would definitely be able to see the bat. If there weren’t any signs of struggle, then how’d he just get hit like that?”

“Good question. Does anyone here have any ideas?” Byakuya called.

“Actually, I’ve got an idea. Seems a little ridiculous though.” Makoto held up the hand mirror he had found. “I found this out in the hall. I think it was attached opposite the storage room door. If you were to place it there, then go over and hide near the bathhouse, behind the curtains…”

He took out his e-Handbook and traced out the angle with his finger on the map.

“If you were right here... “ He pointed to the bathhouse door. “You could look through the curtains while being hidden, and see right into the storage room. In that way, you could tell exactly when someone was entering, and then sneak up behind them and hit them. That would explain how Yasuhiro was taken off guard.”

“Yeah, yeah, from the way the wound looks, I’d say he was hit from behind. And at an angle too. The killer was prolly shorter than him, but basically everyone is shorter than him anyways. Apart from hottie here. Which means he’s innocent!” Shou cheered.

“Uh right…” Mondo said, ignoring Shou. “But isn’t all that mirror shit totally unnecessary? I mean… you’d be able to see about when he’s going into the storage room anyways. Once he disappears behind the wall, you know that he’s basically about to enter the door, and then you just go. Why is the mirror even needed?”

“Maybe the killer was worried that Yasuhiro might linger by the door or not enter right away. It’s just a contingency in case.” Kyoko said. “It does seem a little unnecessary though.”

“Whatever. Is there anything else the mirror could have been used for?” Byakuya asked. “If not, that’s what we’re going with.”

“There were adhesive traces on the wall, and the tape attached to the mirror is clearly used. I’m sure of it.” Makoto affirmed.

“Alright, great, so we know how the culprit committed the crime. But now what? We’re no closer to figuring out who actually did it!” Leon groaned.

“What about alibis? Aren’t those alibi things really useful for ruling people out?” Aoi spoke for the first time.

“I don’t think they’re useful, considering the murder occurred in the middle of the night.” Byakuya said. “We were all sleeping then, except for the killer, of course.”

“Well, the reason I bring it up is because I’ve got one… Sakura too.”

“Explain.”

“You see, I spent the night in Sakura’s room. It’s because- It’s so I couldn’t go out at night. I know that what I did was wrong and I regret it so much that- I deserve to be locked up. But, also, it’s why I couldn’t have left the room.” She said sadly.

“This is true. But it doesn’t quite count as an alibi for myself.” Sakura said.

“Yeah, if Sakura has the key to her own room, she can exit herself if she wants.” Makoto reasoned.

“Wait, then couldn’t Aoi have just stolen it from her and left, then put it back?” Chihiro pointed out.

“She did not. You see, if she wanted to steal the key, she would have to be able to lift me. I placed the key under myself. And that is impossible for her. Not only that, but I am a rather light sleeper. Not once was I touched in the middle of the night. So I can vouch for her.” Sakura explained.

“Right. So I guess Aoi is innocent. Makes sense, we were trying to keep her from a situation where she could murder any of us, so it looks like we succeeded. Of course, she could have killed you, but then it would be pretty obvious that she was the killer…” Makoto nodded to himself in understanding. He had thought that Aoi’s messed up bed was strange. Everyone had just gotten up, so it made no sense for things to be on top of her bed if she had just been sleeping in it. If she wasn’t sleeping in it, then the donut boxes suddenly made sense.

“Does anyone else have anything to say in terms of an alibi other than ‘I was sleeping in my bed’?” Byakuya asked.

Nobody had anything to say.

“Great, back to square one.” Leon grumbled.

“Actually, I just thought of something important to consider.” Sakura interjected. “Shou mentioned earlier that the culprit stabbed through Yasuhiro’s heart very cleanly. Wouldn’t a large amount of blood come out once it was pulled out?”

“Uh, obviously. He was stabbed in the _heart_ after all. The heart pumps blood.” Leon said.

“So why did the killer not get any blood on them?”

“They could have just washed it off, you know.” Leon said.

“Nah, the water is turned off at night.” Makoto cut in. “I mean, if they could wash things, why not wash the bat and the needle?”

“Wait, what about the pool? You can wash stuff using the pool.” Taka suggested.

“Yeah, but then you’d stink like chlorine.”

“Right…”

Kyoko raised her hand. “I have an idea. Chihiro, can you show everyone what you found?”

“Wait, you found something and haven’t shown us yet?” Byakuya raised an eyebrow.

“I just never found the right time… and then I forgot. Sorry!” She held up a tiny red thread.

“That thing has some blood on it. It’s hard to tell since it’s so thin, but there’s blood on it. If you tied the thread to the needle and pulled, you could remove the needle without getting blood on yourself.” Kyoko said. “Oh yeah, we found it in the corner of one of the classrooms.”

“Wait, but wouldn’t touching the thread in order to remove it from the needle get blood on yourself? And if you can’t wash…” Sayaka, who had also been silent, finally spoke.

“Huh. Weird. How’d the thread get off the needle then…?” Kyoko was stumped.

“Ugh. Maybe they used an instrument to get the thread off? Like another needle? Or maybe they just wiped it with a cloth or something?” Taka pondered. “Wait, but then we would have found a bloody cloth, and we didn’t find one…”

“Or they washed their hands.” Makoto said.

“Uh, are you stupid?” Mondo reacted with shock, much like everyone else. “Didn’t you literally just say that you couldn’t wash anything? What, you thinking they used the pool? Are we gonna go around sniffing everyone’s hands for chlorine or something?”

“No. The water is turned off, but that doesn’t mean there’s no water. Plastic water bottles could be used to wash.”

“That’s… awfully complicated. Why use the needle and thread, then wash yourself anyways? Seems like you could have just skipped using the thread.” Kyoko asked.

“You’re forgetting that the killer is human, just like us. They probably were about to pull the needle out by hand, then realized they’d get bled on, and used the thread, then ran about in a panic, hiding all the various evidence in random places. Then, they touched the needle and thread and realized their mistake. They searched frantically for an answer, and found the water bottles in the storage room. Then, they carefully unscrewed it in their room by the sink using their teeth or something and their wrists, and washed their hands. And their key too, since they’d have to hold it with their fingers to open their room door. It’s all very plausible in my mind.”

“Right… that certainly puts things into perspective. The plan was well thought out to an extent, but hiding the evidence and cleanup duty was a bit of a mess.” Byakuya noted. “So. We finally have evidence we can stick to someone. If our killer was careless and left the water bottles in their own trash, then we’ve got them.”

“I have pictures of the trash.” Makoto brought out his e-Handbook. “I never imagined this would come in handy… let’s see.” He rifled through them real quick. Unfortunately, there were several cans with plastic water bottles in them.

“Taka, Sayaka, Sakura, Mondo, Aoi, and Celeste. They’re the ones with plastic water bottles. Ugh, that’s a lot. They’ve got two, one, seven, three, one, and two bottles respectively.”

“So… can you all explain why you have water bottles in your trash?” Byakuya challenged.

“Uh… I drank it. No shit.” Mondo rolled his eyes. “And everyone is just gonna say the same thing.”

“This is where we return to our prior reasoning…” Makoto smiled devilishly. “It’s all coming together. Who out of this list would Yasuhiro trust?”

“Ah! Taka or Sayaka, probably. Who doesn’t trust them? But-” Chihiro teared up. “D-does that mean one of them is the culprit?!? How could that be…?”

“Wha- m-me?” Taka turned completely pale. “No! It isn’t me! There’s no way!”

Sayaka was now breaking out into tears. “I- I can’t believe this…”

“What?”

“Taka… was it really you?”

“WHAT?!?” Taka was in a full out panic now. “No! No, no, no. It can’t be me. I didn’t do it! I didn’t kill him! I-”

Sayaka was full on screaming now. “Well, it wasn’t me, so it has to be you! I don’t want to accuse you like this, but-! But!”

“Can you shut up for a second?” Byakuya said calmly but loudly. “It’s not like it’s for sure one of the two of you. It’s just the most likely scenario. I’m sure there’s some more things we can discuss to narrow things down. So save your accusations.”

Taka and Sayaka, tears staining their faces, looked at Byakuya with a strange mixture of relief, disdain, and confusion.

“Actually, I can help out with this.” Makoto folded his arms. He had to go out on a limb here. This next interaction would either decide it… or leave them hanging in limbo. He could only hope…

...Hope? What was he hoping for? For one of his friends to be the culprit? No… his friend was already a killer. Any belief on his end would not change that. No, he was hoping for survival. Survival for the people who deserve it. And if _that_ person really was a killer… they didn’t deserve it.

“I think we need to discuss how the culprit knew how to stab someone in the heart so perfectly like that.” Makoto brought up. “You see, it’s hard to go around all the bones and get them right in the heart. So how did they know? Well, you see…”

He held up the human body chart he had gotten from Celeste’s sewing kit.

“This, right here. It tells you everything you need to know about obliterating a human’s vital points.”

“Wait, how’d you get that?” Aoi asked.

“I asked Celeste to give it to me, for evidence purposes. You see, I figured that I’d be needing this during the trial.” He explained.

“What even is that? Where did it come from?” Leon was understandably confused.

“It’s a chart that comes as a part of a sewing kit. A sewing kit that every girl has in their dorm room.”

Makoto glanced over at Sayaka. She seemed to be shrinking: trying to get all attention off of her.

“And out of all the girls… only two have had their kits open.”

“Who!? Who!?” Leon couldn’t bear the tension.

“Celeste of course, since she gave hers to me, and I opened it myself. And… Sayaka. It’s you. You’re the one who opened up your sewing kit.” Makoto pointed at her.

All eyes turned toward her in accusation.

“W-wait, guys, no! I- I just opened it to do some sewing in my room! I swear! I never even read that pamphlet! I just threw it away! Please!” She sobbed.

“Yeah, that’s true. You were definitely doing some sewing in your room. And you didn’t use any of the needles in the kit for murder, that much is certain.” Makoto said. “I saw your little project myself, and I found each and every needle that comes with the kit.”

“O-oh. Phew.”

“You’re not out of the hot seat yet.” Byakuya said. “After all, you’re the only person who could have ever read that pamphlet.”

“Wait, that’s not true! Not at all!” She pleaded. “You see, I, uh… I threw the pamphlet away in the… laundry room. Yeah, the laundry room! So anyone could have just walked in, dug through the trash, and read it! I’m sure!”

It was showtime. Now or never.

“That’s wrong.” Makoto said bluntly. “I’m the one who took out the trash that one time. And… I saw the pamphlet in your very own room’s trash bin, before I incinerated it. I’m entirely certain of it!”

She looked visibly shaken. “Y-you remember that? No way! Th-that’s not possible… you’re lying, you’re lying, you’re lying!”

Makoto’s face fell. It was over.

Byakuya seemed to notice too.

“I guess we’re ready to vote now?” He said, arms crossed.

“Wait, what?” Aoi said. “But… maybe Makoto really is lying?”

“No. Whether he lied or not about remembering isn’t the issue.” Byakuya clicked his tongue. “The issue is that Sayaka changed her story. She clearly said ‘You remember that?’, which means she admits that the pamphlet was discarded in her own trash bin. Then, she proceeded to claim ‘you’re lying’. Which contradicts her previous statement. There’s no reason for her to start changing the story if she’s innocent.”

All the life seemed to drain from Sayaka’s face.

“For the record, I didn’t actually remember the contents of anyone’s trash cans before I threw them out. I mean, how could I? I don’t scrutinize people’s trash for no reason.” Makoto said.

“Y-you tricked me?” Sayaka mumbled. “How… could you…?”

“Because… some people deserve to live.” Makoto said. “If we get this wrong, we die. I’m just using every tool at my disposal to ensure that we live.” It’s not like he was proud of his dirty tactics, but he’d use them.

“No no no no no. That’s- she’s not the culprit!” Taka screamed. “What about- what about Celeste! She opened her sewing kit!”

“No, I opened it, not her. And she watched me open it. It can’t be us, since it was opened after Yasuhiro was already dead.”

“What about the crazy soldier! She could have killed him!”

Byakuya joined in. “You think he would have trusted a note from Shou? Or Toko? Not to mention, Shou was the one who pointed out the intricacy of the wound in the first place. I think she would have left it ambiguous if she was the killer. Also, there were no empty bottles in her room.”

“Ugh!” Taka hiccupped.

“Enough, Taka… I- I did it. I’m sorry… I’m so sorry…” Sayaka admitted it.

“I just… can’t believe this shit. Why’d you do this?” Mondo asked sadly.

Sayaka remained silent.

“Should I summarize this case before we vote…? Or…” Makoto asked

“No. I think we’re all convinced.” Kyoko sighed.

“Then… it’s voting time… I guess…” Chihiro sniffled.

“VOTING TIIIMMEEE!!!!!” Monokuma cheered.

\--------------------------

Every single vote went towards Sayaka. Even her own.

“Congratulations, guys! You did it again! The killer in this case is Sayaka Maizono, the Ultimate Moral Compass. Guess she didn’t really live up to her title though! But living up to titles won’t be a problem for her anymore. Since she’ll be D-E-A-D!” Monokuma laughed. “Puhuhuhuhuhu!”

“You know… if you had just thought faster, you could have broken out of that situation, Sayaka. You could have fooled us all and sent us back to a deadlock.” Byakuya commented, ignoring Monokuma.

She didn’t look like she cared anymore.

“You could have simply claimed that Taka visited your room at some point, and read the pamphlet while you weren’t paying attention. It would have been believable to a degree, even if it sounds a little far fetched. But in the end, you slipped. You couldn’t do it.” Byakuya shrugged and shook his head. “Too bad.”

“Enough!” Taka yelled. “I… I don’t want to talk about that anymore. I just want to know why… why…?”

Sayaka remained silent.

“Talk, dammit! You fucking killed Yasuhiro! Why!” Mondo pounded his fist against his stand.

Still silence.

“Aww, looks like our goody two shoes here doesn’t wanna talk about her problems to anyone. You know that it’s ok, right? To talk to people? You’re always shouldering the burdens of others, but you never want to fork over your own… So pitiful.” Monokuma cooed mockingly. “If you don’t want to talk… I will! Let’s all watch Sayaka Maizono’s motive video, shall we?”

Before anyone could object, a screen flickered to life.

It was an entire building filled with children. An orphanage, actually. There must have been at least a few dozen of them. A good few of the kids were either bald, or in wheelchairs, and some of them had their arms all screwed up next to their sides, unable to control their muscle contractions. This is what she valued? No wonder she was desperate to get out!

A caretaker type lady spoke to the crowd of kids. “Alright, let’s all cheer together now, on three. One, two, three!”

“Good luck, Sayaka!” All the kids said at once.

At this point pandemonium broke loose. The kids were running around towards the camera, smiling, laughing, and creating a general cacophony of supportive words and personal greetings that went unheard under the din.

It was wild, but beautiful.

And then the screen fizzled to black, and when it came back…

The orphanage was just a pile of rubble.

“Aww, looks like your little orphanage babies don’t have a home anymore! But that’s not the least of their worries… I wonder what’s happening to them right now?” Monokuma asked.

FIND OUT AFTER GRADUATION!

“...”

“...So that’s why, huh? Hah… we never stood a chance, did we?” Taka croaked out. “There’s just twelve of us: it’s nothing compared to the fifty-something children who were waiting for you.”

“Did it never occur to you that Yasuhiro might have just as many people waiting for him?” Makoto growled. “What about the rest of us? We would be dead if you had your way. How many people do you think are wishing us the best? Huh? Hoping we return alive? If there’s even anything to return to!”

Makoto’s anger ignited Sayaka’s own. Her despondence transformed into defiance.

“SHUT UP!” She roared. “YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND WHAT THOSE CHILDREN HAVE BEEN THROUGH! NOBODY DOES! THEY _NEED_ ME, DON’T YOU GET IT!? I NEED TO BE THERE FOR THEM! AND IF YOU GUYS DIDN’T- IF YOU JUST-”

“What, did you want us to throw away our lives for them?” Byakuya cut her off. “Sorry, but you can’t expect us to simply do that for strangers. I don’t care if they’re cripples, have cancer, or even if they’re angels in disguise. I’m acting in my self interest. If you don’t understand that… then you deserve to lose this ‘game’.”

“Is this all just a game to you? This was never a game!” Sayaka screeched. “People’s lives- CHILDREN’S LIVES! They’re on the line! So I need to- I needed to go back to them! Without me, they’ll-”

“I ain’t presuming to speak for those kids, but if you think they can’t get by without you, then you’re probably fucking wrong. If they’ve had it so tough, what’s to say they can’t take care of themselves?” Mondo said.

“No, no! They need me! I’m sure of it! They can’t cope without… without me…!” Her ramblings were beginning to take a bit of an insane turn.

“Sounds like it’s the other way around, blue!” Shou called out. “I bet you love it when others rely on you. Maybe you even get off on it! Ahahahahahaha!”

“NO! No…” She was losing steam…

“Hey, if you’re taking a break from your little temper tantrum, how about we see Yasuhiro’s video too? So you can really soak in what you’ve done.” Monokuma pressed another button, and…

“So, we’re supposed to say something?” A man on the screen scratched his chin and looked at the other men gathered around. There were five of them.

“Like what? Words of encouragement? Dude, like he needs any! We’re the ones who need encouragement! This damn fucker is a detective! We’re jobless, ok?” One of the others said.

“Amen, amen.” Another chimed in.

“Hey, but you know, it’s because he’s got such a tough job that he needs our support, yeah?”

“Ha, you got a point there.”

“Alrighty, hey there Hiro! Hope you’re seeing this! We’re all doing fine in rehab! Making lots of progress! The intervals between withdrawals are getting longer and longer for each of us! I hope things are going good on your end too!”

“And good luck with that Hope’s Peak shit. Sounds like a buncha fancy shmancy mumbo jumbo but if it makes you famous then I guess that’s pretty fire.”

“Be seeing you then!”

And then the screen went black once more, and revealed a ruined version of the previous scene.

“My my! Your rehab buddies seem to have gone missing. Hope they didn’t relapse and OD! Puhuhuhuhu.”

FIND OUT AFTER GRADUATION!

“Wha-” Mondo gaped.

“Those… those were his friends in rehab? He was going through rehab for a marijuana addiction?” Leon summarized.

“That’s right!” Monokuma clapped his paws. “It was going so well too! At least, until this killing game thing stressed him right out. He went into some pretty harsh withdrawals so I brought him a pipe and some weed so he could relax! Of course, he never actually got a chance to smoke it…”

“Maybe that’s why he was so careless with following the note?” Makoto realized. “He probably wasn’t thinking too straight at the time…”

“Perhaps, but I don’t think any of us can say for sure.” Byakuya said.

“So… don’t you think he had so much potential? So much to live for? Look at his friends! He was going on a journey with them! A quest to drop weed for good! But you snuffed him out prematurely. Is that just despairing?” Monokuma said in a sickly sweet tone.

Sayaka shook her head. “I- I had no choice. I had to save them. I had to kill him to escape. I’m sorry… but there was no other choice.”

Makoto had had it with these words.

“ _No other choice? **You lack imagination.**_ ”

“Then tell me! What could I have done! I had to escape, so-”

Makoto opened his mouth, but-

“You could have worked with us to find another way!” Taka said for him. “Don’t you see? We’re all allies here! Our one enemy is Monokuma! I’m sure if we tried hard enough, we could find some kind of way to-”

“You’re wrong!” She screamed back. “There is no way! Makoto tried and failed! Even he gave up! So… so… so I had no choice!”

“Hah. You expressed disdain for the game and yet you play by the rules.” Byakuya shook his head. “If this was never a game to you… the rules shouldn’t matter, no?”

“Yrrrrggggh…!” 

“If there’s nothing else to talk about, I wanna get started with the E-X-E-C-U-T-I-O-N!” Monokuma belted. “I’ve been waiting too long for this!”

“W-wait, no, please no! You can’t! I- I killed Yasuhiro, right? Isn’t that good enough for you? You just wanted a killing to happen, right? So you can just spare me and let me go… RIGHT!?” Sayaka’s desperation was just pitiful at this point.

“Puhuhu. That’s cute. You want to be spared _now_? Like you said, you killed Yasuhiro. And then you were found out! So it’s just an eye for an eye!” Monokuma took out a little gavel and pounded down on a red button.

Faster than anyone could react, a metal clamp shot from the wall, grabbed Sayaka, and dragged her off into the darkness.

“Wait! Where- what are you doing?” Taka demanded.

“Just watch and see!” Monokuma whistled.

The screen once again displayed something.

\--------------------------

_**The Morally Right Decision** _

Sayaka was sitting inside a closed box. The only holes were to show her face, and to allow her left arm to reach out and grab a strange lever off to the side. As the camera panned out… she was revealed to be on a set of train tracks!

A train barreled down the track at full speed. It came closer… closer… it would be zooming right past in just a few seconds! Sayaka looked at the track in front of her. She had a choice. Pull the lever and redirect the train so it obliterated her instead, or…

Let the train run down all of the orphans she had fought so hard to see again. Each and every one of them was tied down to the track. They screamed and cried and begged for help. Their wails grew louder by the second to match the increasing roar of the train.

It wasn’t much of a choice to make for Sayaka. She pulled that lever with all her might, and the track switched. The train redirected towards her, and she closed her eyes in acceptance as the train-

...Derailed and fell off the tracks, skidding to the side, barely missing Sayaka.

It- it was a miracle! The train derailed! Sayaka, realizing she was still alive, shook the box. She rocked back and forth, kicked at it, banged it around, until finally, it tipped over and smashed apart onto the ground. She got up, jubilant.

She had cheated death! The execution had failed!

And then she turned around.

Standing behind her were the fifty or so orphans. But they were different. No longer were they terrified. No, they were _terrifying_. They marched towards Sayaka in unison, with only the whites of their eyes showing.

Sayaka said something, but the microphone didn’t pick it up. She was in visible confusion. What was going on?

She said something else to the children, but they didn’t respond. They simply marched towards her. Once they were just a few feet away, they all looked up at her with robotic synchronicity.

“SAYAKA, RUN!” Taka suddenly screamed. But she couldn’t hear him.

The children leapt upon her with inhuman speed. Her last expression was that of shock, of betrayal, and of abject fear as the false children tore into her flesh. They teethed and clawed and pummeled. The mass continued to writhe for minutes on end as blood and bits of flesh flew out of the pile every so often.

It was only after a full five minutes of the gore that the children dispersed.

Not even bones were left intact. Just a pile of red goo with various white shards sticking out.

\--------------------------

“ **AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!** ” Monokuma blasted out the biggest laugh yet. “Now isn’t that ironic! She would have lived if she had just let the children get run over! Isn’t that hilarious?”

“You sick sack of shit!!!” Mondo dashed forwards, raising his fist.

“Stop!” Sakura grabbed Mondo by the shoulders, straining to keep him back. “Do you want to meet the same fate?”

Taka was in complete shock. He just stood by himself, staring directly at the ground, mumbling to himself over and over and over and over and over and over…

“That… was…” Even Byakuya was at a loss for words.

Chihiro and Aoi were just a shivering mess. Leon was covering his face with his hands.

“Even I’m not a big fan of that…” Shou said uncharacteristically soberly. “That was in bad taste, bear.”

“Wow, even the insane soldier thinks ill of me for that one! Guess I did a pretty good job, didn’t I?” Monokuma laughed again. “Puhuhuhuhuhuhuhu.”

“She didn’t deserve that!” Chihiro shouted suddenly.

“Oh, little Chihiro is trying to stand up to me?” Monokuma smirked. “But you know, she kinda did. I mean, she killed Yasuhiro!”

“But that was- that was way too cruel! How could you be so cruel?”

“That’s just the way he is, Chihiro. Don’t think of Monokuma, or the person behind him, for that matter, as another human being, like me or you. They don’t qualify as human.” Makoto said. 

Chihiro just kept sobbing. “But… I can’t just accept this…”

“Whether you accept it or not, you can’t let it deter you from our ultimate goal.” Byakuya said solemnly. “It’s no use getting upset over the inevitable result…”

“But- but!”

“Sayaka knew what she was getting herself into. If she wasn’t prepared for this possibility, then it’s just her own fault. We can’t linger on this.” Makoto said.

Chihiro looked up at Makoto with chilling eyes.

“What did you just say…?”

Makoto found he couldn’t answer.

“It’s… her own fault…? HOW COULD YOU EVEN SAY THAT! THIS IS ALL MONOKUMA’S FAULT!” Chihiro exploded.

“That’s not what I meant!” Makoto shot back angrily. “Her death isn’t her fault, but her lack of preparedness for death is her fault! I’m not trying to say that-”

“Makoto! I know that you’ve always been kind of cold but…! This is too much! How could you blame her!”

“ARRRGGH! But you have to admit some of it is her fault!” Makoto yelled.

Darn it, no! I could have phrased that better… Chihiro isn’t understanding what I was trying to say. She- he…? Whatever. Chihiro is too emotional right now to listen to me carefully. But if I don’t fix this right now-

Chihiro turned around and stomped off towards the elevator.

“Leave her.” Byakuya advised. “I understand perfectly what you were saying right there… she’s just too blind to see it. You can explain later, if you really care that much.”

Makoto remained silent for a bit. He was right. “...let’s just go.”

Kyoko joined Makoto. “I could try to explain it to her if you’d like…”

“Sure… but even if you do, I should still try explaining it to her later myself.” He said.

As everyone began filing into the elevator, tears having run dry, Makoto found himself gravitating towards Taka, who was being comforted by Mondo.

“Bro… I’m telling you. Even if you had done something, it wouldn’t have made a difference. There was nothing any of us could have done in that situation.” Mondo said soothingly.

“I- I know that… I’m just ashamed.” Taka said. “I should have at least tried. I should have spoken up, or tried to find her, or… or- I don’t know. But even if it was all futile, I should have done something. But I couldn’t. I froze up. I’m- I’m a failure as a leader. I can’t even lead by example…”

“Don’t be so tough on yourself, bro. You’re human, like the rest of us. I’m a martial artist. I’ve been in plenty of dangerous situations before, but I froze up too. I couldn’t even speak while the execution was going on. So… you can’t expect yourself…”

Taka nodded in understanding. But Makoto got the feeling he still didn’t really forgive himself.

Mondo had it covered though, so Makoto figured he should butt out.

\--------------------------

Once they made it to the top, Makoto took a short trip to the storage room. It was… clean. Like Yasuhiro’s body had never been there at all. And then an idea began to form in his head. A crazy idea. One that he should have thought of when Hifumi died.

There was a potential way out.

But he couldn’t let anything slip. Even a sign or a peep could give him away.

This entire killing game was like walking on thin ice. But he’d find the safe spots and cross this dangerous lake. No matter what.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As with the beginning note, I'm really sorry if I said anything wrong concerning drugs.
> 
> Anyways... I hope that this chapter was a good one. I try to keep my trials pretty streamlined. When people don't have anything useful to say, they don't talk. It takes away some chances to show off various character's personalities, but I think it makes sense for a trial where your life is on the line. And again, some forms of trickery are used to reveal the culprit. Writing it like that is slightly more natural for me, since setting a trail of breadcrumbs like they do in a lot of AA games is not really my style. And from a culprit's perspective, if the crime isn't perfect, then what's the point? Also from a culprit's perspective, there's no point in setting up a really complicated murder method, since the most important thing is to protect your identity rather than confuse people on how the victim was killed.
> 
> Argh. It's hard to get the flow of a trial right. Anyways, hope you enjoyed it all regardless!


	18. Chapter 3: Ignorance is Bliss - Daily Life Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ANGST!
> 
> Also we've got a PoV swap.
> 
> Edit: I decided on a different name for the chapter. I think it fits better.

Hi there! My name is Chihiro Fujisaki. I think you already mostly know how my story goes, but, um…

I really just need to talk to someone about something… I’m sorry, but please listen to me for a while!

You see, it’s about my best friend. He’s… I feel like I don’t know him anymore. Um, wait, let me back up. I’m talking about Makoto. I know what you’re thinking. ‘You met this guy only around a week ago, and he’s already your best friend?’ Well, yeah. It’s embarrassing, but I’ve never really had any friends before. I always just stayed indoors and read books when I was little, and I’m pretty weak too, so I could never relate to all the other kids who were just interested in playing outside… and from there, I didn’t really know how to socialize or approach other people. So I never made any friends. There’s another reason for why I couldn’t make friends, but…

Sorry! I’ll tell you later.

But back to Makoto. I really thought that I understood him, but the way he acted back in the trial room… I’ve gone over his words hundreds of times in my head already, and I understand now that he didn’t necessarily mean that Sayaka deserved to die… But I can’t believe he would say such things out loud! Speaking ill of the dead… saying that they should have been prepared for it… how could he say that?

Blaming people, hating people, holding grudges… I don’t understand why people enjoy it. Being angry just makes me feel sick.

I just don’t get it… why can’t people just forgive each other, and live happily?

“God dammit. It feels like the day is already over, but… it’s just noon.” Mondo’s words brought Chihiro back to reality.

Everyone was snacking on various pre-packaged foods in the dining hall. Nobody had the energy to do any cooking. Of course, ‘everyone’ now meant ‘everyone minus Yasuhiro and Sayaka’. Hifumi and Junko too…

But there was someone else missing too. Makoto. He was nowhere to be found.

“So… what now?” Leon asked.

Nobody had a proper answer. “Um… maybe we could…”

“I just now opened up the new floor for yall!” Monokuma said. “Aren’t you so glad that your good ol’ moral compass so kindly killed and died so you could have this awesome new exploration opportunity?”

“Shut the fuck up. I know you’re a shitty bastard who doesn’t care, but disrespecting the dead like that…” Mondo growled.

“Ha ha ha! Touched a nerve, have I? Anyways, have fun! And feel free to call if you need anything! I know you all would love to have some one on one time with a sexy bear like me…” Monokuma strode out of the cafeteria.

“As much as I hate to follow his suggestion, I don’t think we have anything better to do. Let’s hope that something on the next floor will help us escape.” Sakura said.

Chihiro turned to see that Byakuya had already left the room, and Toko (or was it still Shou?) was trailing behind him. Guess there was nothing else to do but explore… Maybe Makoto was already off exploring?

It was a long trek up to the third floor, at least for someone with short legs like Chihiro. Once everyone was finally up there, everyone gravitated towards the first room in sight: a rec room. There was a pool table, a dart board, a slot machine, some magazines, board games… it might be fun to play some games in here if the threat of death wasn’t constantly hanging over everyone’s heads.

But apparently, Leon forgot about that threat the instant he set foot in the room. “Wow! Look at this! This table is set up like a game board. That’s pretty cool. And I’ve actually played pool before, believe it or not. Does anyone wanna play me?”

“Dude. I don’t think we really have the time or luxury for doing that.” Mondo deadpanned.

Leon looked a little sheepish. “But you know, don’t you think we deserve a little break? Come on, all this life or death stuff is really wearing me out. I need to mentally recharge, you know?”

“He… might have a point there.” Sakura admitted.

“Fine, but we can do it later. We should finish up with exploring the floor.” Kyoko said.

“Alright, alright. That works for me.”

Despite this, Leon opted to stay behind and play around in the rec room instead of following the rest to the next room. As everyone started to leave, however…

“Hey, I’m here to tell you all that a new rule has been added! Or rather, an old rule has been edited to include more! The rule is now in place since I’ve told you all. So read it to make sure you don’t break it!” Monokuma, hanging upside down from a ceiling panel, said.

“Wh-? What prompted this?” Kyoko asked.

“Read the rule and find out!” Monokuma retreated back into the ceiling.

“Interesting. So that is how Monokuma gets around.” Celeste said. “But it looks far too small for any one of us to go through. Not even Chihiro could.”

“Speaking of vents, there must be some kind of ventilation for this building. Though if it’s just as big as those vents, then we couldn’t use it to escape.” Kyoko said.

“Actually, the rule relates to that.” Sakura said. “Here.” She held up her e-Handbook for everyone to see.

Rule #5: Violence against the headmaster is prohibited, as is the destruction of the video cameras, video monitors, machine guns, the metal plates and bolts that cover the windows, and the air purifier in the physics lab.

“Physics lab? Wait, you don’t think that Byakuya or Toko or Makoto found this purifier and tried to smash it to find the vents? I mean, we haven’t been to a physics lab yet, so it must be on this floor.” Kyoko reasoned.

“Seems likely. We should check it out ourselves as soon as possible.”

It was strange, seeing Kyoko and Sakura lead the group. Sayaka was gone, Taka was distraught, and Byakuya and Makoto were just going off on their own. It felt like everything was falling apart, and the only ones responsible and strong enough to step up to the plate now were the two of them. Chihiro had to do better.

The next room they visited (without Leon) was the art room. There were canvases, palettes, and paint brushes lying around. There were also plaster busts of various historical figures… they were a little creepy though. There was also a small room in the back, which held all sorts of additional art supplies. In particular, there were some dangerous looking hammers in the back…

“Um… shouldn’t we get rid of those?” Chihiro suggested. “They look dangerous.”

Monokuma popped in. “Go ahead! Of course, I’ll just replace them at the speed of light, so it’s all going to be useless anyways. But if you really want to…” Monokuma popped back out.

“So it is futile. Unsurprising.” Celeste twirled her hair.

“Hmmm. Well, can’t we at least take inventory of this place? It’s kind of a storage room, just like the one downstairs. Just in case anything happens, we can refer to our inventory.” Kyoko suggested.

An inventory, just like the one Hiro had suggested. It was only right…

“Um, I can do it. With supervision, of course.” Aoi raised her hand.

Mondo raised an eyebrow. “You? You think we’d trust you to do that?”

Chihiro cut in. “I’m ok with it. I… I really think she regrets it now. And, um, I forgive you, Aoi. You were scared. We were all scared, so… I think I can understand. So I forgive you.”

“Are you fucking crazy?” Mondo screamed. Then he stopped a beat. “Ah, fuck, sorry for yelling. I shouldn’t have yelled at you. But are you absolutely sure? She did try to kill you. You can seriously forgive her just like that?”

Chihiro nodded.

“Damn… well, if you’re willing to forgive her… I guess I can as well.” Mondo slicked back his drooping hair. It still hadn’t dried completely, and his classic pompadour was replaced by a surprisingly handsome slicked back style.

“All right… are we splitting up then? Some of us will stay here to take inventory, and the rest will go on and investigate the rest of the floor?” Kyoko asked.

“Yes, it seems that way.” Sakura said. “I shall stay and take inventory with Aoi, if you all do not mind.”

“I can help as well… I suppose…” Taka offered.

“In that case, I’m sticking with you, bro.” Mondo leaned on his shoulder in a reassuring manner.

The only ones left to investigate the floor were Chihiro, Kyoko, and Celeste. And it was definitely more than a little awkward.

“Chihiro. Since when were Taka and Mondo so close? I never really paid close attention to them, but I was under the impression that Mondo wasn’t all that fond of Taka…” Kyoko said.

“Oh, I think it was after you and Makoto left early during that training. They got into a pushup contest that went on for… well, I don’t know how long, since I left before that as well. But they were getting into the hundreds, I think.”

Kyoko’s eyes expanded. The idea of hundreds of pushups was unfathomable to her.

“After that, I asked them who won in the end, and they said that it didn’t matter. They’ve gotten along well ever since…”

“Oh. Must be a manly respect type of thing where they bond over doing dumb stuff.” Kyoko rolled her eyes. “I’ll never be able to understand that.”

“Uh… I guess.” Chihiro said tentatively.

They saw the stairs leading up, which were blocked as usual, then moved on to the next room. They saw Byakuya and Toko (or Shou?) exiting.

“Byakuya! What’s going on? Did you find Makoto?” Chihiro asked.

“Yup, we found him. But he already ran off. If you didn’t see him, then he must have gone back downstairs while you were all in another room.”

“Oh…”

“Don’t bother trying to talk to him, Chihiro. I don’t know what’s going on through his head, but he made it rather clear to me that he was working solo from now on. I’d be wary of him.” Byakuya advised.

“What? B-but! But why?”

“It’s possible that he came to some kind of realization, or that he just went crazy. Or he’s just ashamed of showing his face to you, after your little spat in the trial room. Or all of the above.” Byakuya shrugged. “I personally don’t care about his reasons. My only concern is that he seems dangerous now. We might consider locking him in his room so he doesn’t cause any trouble.”

“Byakuya!”

“What? I’m being serious. I’d tell you to talk to him to find out yourself just how far gone he is, but honestly, I don’t think you should go near him ever again. He’s become dangerous.”

“A-anyways… if we’re done here, can we go?” Toko mumbled. “I’m still trying to get used to the fact that Sayaka killed Yasuhiro… I honestly don’t know whether to feel lucky or unlucky that I always miss these critical moments.”

“It is what it is. But yes, let’s go. Good luck with your investigation.” Byakuya and Toko left, leaving Chihiro, Kyoko, and Celeste behind.

“Interesting…” Celeste said softly.

Chihiro and Kyoko didn’t know whether they were meant to hear that or not, and decided to simply ignore her and move on to the physics lab.

The most notable thing was the giant machine in the center of the room. The air purifier, as it was. The existence of such an object meant that the school truly was completely airtight. Aside from whatever ventilation was hooked up to the purifier, of course. But given that damaging or otherwise dismantling the purifier was now against the rules, escaping through the vents was impossible.

Attached to the physics lab was yet another storage room, this time for things like tarps, burners, weights, and various beakers.

“I guess we’re taking inventory again?” Chihiro said aloud.

“Yeah, looks like it.” Kyoko got out a pen and notepad (how resourceful to always carry one around…) and began noting things down. Chihiro followed suit, helping to add things to the list. But Celeste wasn’t helping in the slightest…

“Celeste, won’t you give us a hand?” Chihiro asked.

“I don’t quite see the point. I fail to see how knowing what’s in the room will help us in any way.”

“Well, for one, it helps us find out if something is missing. And it also tells us where to look. For example, let’s say we found one of these weights somewhere. I don’t think it would be immediately obvious that it was from the physics lab specifically, but since we made an inventory that details it, we’d know to check the physics lab for more clues.” Kyoko said. “I’m sure you’re not very fond of the idea of dying, and neither are the rest of us. So help.”

Celeste’s left eyebrow twitched almost imperceptibly. But it twitched.

“If you are so adamant about it, then fine. I suppose I can lend my aid.”

Chihiro took this time to really think and come to a decision. Byakuya had said to not talk to Makoto, but that wasn’t really much of an option, in Chihiro’s opinion. Makoto’s cooperation had always been helpful, regardless of his demeanor. Everyone really needed him, and it wouldn’t be right to stay away just because of a little disagreement.

Inventory finished up in the relatively timely manner, since the physics lab’s storage room was not as big as the storage room on the first floor. They met back up with the other group, who had finished with the inventory of the art room’s storage, and all took pictures of their respective lists.

“So… what do we do now?” Mondo asked. “We’ve explored and shit but Monokuma introduced that rule and I don’t think there’s anything here we can use to escape.”

“Is anyone feeling hungry?” Aoi asked.

“A little.” Kyoko admitted. “Should we eat now?”

“Sorry… I’m not feeling hungry right now.” Chihiro said. “I might join you later though…”

“Alright. But wait, where are you going?”

“I’ll… be in the library.” This was a bit of a lie. Chihiro was instead going to search for Makoto, though maybe the lie would become a truth if Makoto was in the library?

“Alone?” Kyoko said. “That’s dangerous. If you want to be alone, you should go to your room.”

“...fine. I’ll go to the library and get myself a book, then go to my room to read it. Ok?”

“Alright. Stay safe.”

As Chihiro left, Mondo was heard arguing a bit with Kyoko over something or another, but Chihiro didn’t care much at this point.

The library was empty. At least, that’s how it seemed. But Chihiro decided to check the hidden room on a hunch. Sure enough…

Makoto looked up from a file he was holding. “Oh. Hi there.”

“Makoto. Are you alright?” Chihiro asked tentatively.

“Hmm? No, probably not.” He chuckled. “But that’s ok… you see, I have an idea now. From reading up on some stuff in here, I’ve created a plan that’s going to work.”

“Wait, really?”

“Yes… though this is something I have to do on my own.”

“But why?”

“Because the plan won’t work otherwise. And besides, a good person like you doesn’t deserve to get caught up in my schemes.”

“Wh-what?”

“You see, back in the trial room, when we had our little argument… I realized that I was wrong to say that. I definitely should not have said that to you.”

“O-oh?”

He turned to face Chihiro directly. “But I was not wrong. I still believe that my ideology is correct. You see, we exist in different worlds now. You’re pure. You believe in the good in everyone, no matter the circumstances, and despise death such that you’ll never accept it, even when it seems inevitable. You’re the epitome of purity. But me? I accepted death as a fact and didn’t look back. I’m irredeemable. No more than a monster.”

“A m-monster? How can you say that? You’re- you’re just you! How can you call yourself a monster?”

Makoto remained silent.

“I don’t get you! All you’re saying is that you’ve adapted to the environment, and I haven’t! I don’t see how that makes you a monster. Why are you saying all these terrible things about yourself?”

Makoto got up to leave. “I can’t tell you that.”

Chihiro grabbed onto Makoto’s sleeve. “Stop. You can’t just leave now that you’ve said that.”

Makoto violently yanked his arm away. “No, I think I can. Any more conversation will be pointless. A good person like you could never understand my mind. And if you did understand, you wouldn’t be a good person anymore.” He opened the door and stepped out.

“Makoto, wait! At least let me help you with whatever it is you’re doing!” Chihiro chased him, but he shot back a look that had similar properties to an icicle.

“If you follow me, try to help me… you’d be turning into a monster yourself. I can’t let that happen to you. Now, goodbye. Just be patient, and I’ll get you all out of here.”

As Makoto stormed out of the library he muttered to himself. “Only a monster can defeat another monster… I’ll become whatever I have to be in order to accomplish my goals…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That was really angsty. I felt the angst seeping into my bones when I was writing that. Anyways, this altercation in Makoto is pretty extreme this time! Wonder what exactly caused him to change so drastically. (I say that, but as the writer, I know what it is...)
> 
> Hope that the reveal that Hamster Man has become Darth Hamster Man wasn't too harsh. It kinda hurt me too, but this is where I'm going with the story... hope it turns out alright. Makoto certainly has a lot of secrets of both the material and immaterial type, and they'll be getting revealed as we go along, so please stay tuned!


End file.
